ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 



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ROOSEVELT 

THE 

HAPPY WARRIOR 



BY 



BRADLEY OILMAN 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM 
PHOTOGRAPHS 



"Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport 
the world Rffords." 

— Thkodor£ Roosevelt, 



N ON-REFER T 




SlAlVAD • Q3S 



BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1921 






Copyright, 1921, 
By Little, Bkown, and Company. 



All rights reserved 
Published October, 1921 



g)Cl,A630:i87 



OCT 2b m\ 



Printed in the United States of America 



\V 



^'^'^ 



TO 

M. R. F. G. 

MY FELLOW TRAVELER, WHOSE INTEL- 
LIGENT SYMPATHY HAS BEEN TO ME 
THE VERY BREATH OF LIFE, 
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 



CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he 

That every man in arms should wish to be? 

— It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought 

Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought 

Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought: 

Whose high endeavours are an inward light 

That makes the path before him always bright: 

Who, with a natural instinct to discern 

What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn; 

Who, doomed to go in company with Pain, 
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train! 
Turns his necessity to glorious gain; 

'Tis he whose law is reason; who depends 
Upon that law as on the best of friends ; 

He labours good on good to fix, and owes 
To virtue every triumph that he knows: 
— Who, if he rise to station of command, 
Rises by open means ; and there will stand 
On honourable terms, or else retire. 
And in himself possess his own desire; 
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same 
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim. 

— He who, though thus endued as with a sense 

And faculty for storm and turbulence. 

Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans 

To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes. 

— William Wordsworth. 



PREFACE 

My old-time Professor of English, at Harvard, 
Francis J. Child, once said to me, "Sonnets are 
things which everybody writes and nobody reads." 
Be that as it may, I fear that Prefaces are things 
which every author writes and few people read. 
In truth, most authors, I suspect, write two pref- 
aces. The first one when they square themselves 
to their task and desire to "sketch in" their plan 
and purpose. When they have finished their work, 
they tear up this written preface and write a new 
one, telling what they believe they have accom- 
plished. 

This has been my own course of procedure. My 
preliminary preface is in the wastebasket. And 
now, surveying my completed work, what do I find ? 
Yes, and what do I wish my readers to find ? 

I have tried to analyze the character of my col- 
lege classmate, Theodore Roosevelt, and to inter- 
pret him by his words and deeds. I have not hesi- 
tated to go quite beyond the reportorial field of 
the chronicler. I have not cared to express a coldly 
judicial attitude. Rather have I sought to set 



X PREFACE 

forth that high estimate of him which I have cher- 
ished through more than three decades. 

I have sought, by my interpretations of his words 
and deeds, to strengthen in his friends the love 
which they already feel. And, by laying bare to 
the noonday light, so far as I have had the power, 
his innermost springs of action, I have hoped to 
transform into sincere friends some who once were 
honest foes. Following the lead of Wordsworth's 
immortal conception, I picture Theodore Roose- 
velt to myself and to my readers as "The Happy 
Warrior." Joy and combat. Elevation of soul 
through championship of Right and Truth. Those 
are the two foci of the ellipse which expresses his 
strenuous life. 

Several biographies of Roosevelt have already 
been written, with varying values and from various 
viewpoints. My method, in this book, has been so 
personal and intimate that I have needed to seek 
material from many persons who were his friends 
and mine. They have responded freely, gener- 
ously. To them all — and especially to my class- 
mates of Harvard, '80 — I express my warmest 
thanks. 

I wish, also, to acknowledge, gratefully, the as- 
sistance I have received from these books: "Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, An Autobiography", "Theodore 
Roosevelt and His Time", 2 vols., by Joseph Buck- 



PREFACE xi 

lin Bishop, "Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His 
Children", edited by Joseph Bucklin Bishop, pub- 
lished by Charles Scribner's Sons; "Theodore 
Roosevelt", by William Roscoe Thayer, "Theodore 
Roosevelt, the Logic of His Career", by Charles 
G. Washburn, "Talks with T. R.", by John J. 
Leary, Jr., published by Houghton Mifflin Co.; 
"Life of Theodore Roosevelt", by William Draper 
Lewis, published by John C. Winston Co.; "Im- 
pressions of Theodore Roosevelt", by Lawrence F. 
Abbott, pubhshed by Doubleday, Page Co. ; "Theo- 
dore Roosevelt the Citizen", by Jacob Riis, pub- 
hshed by Macmillan Co.; "The Boys' Life of 
Theodore Roosevelt", by Hermann Hagedorn, Jr., 
"Bill Sewall's Story of T. R.", by William W. 
Sewall, published by Harper & Brothers; "Theo- 
dore Roosevelt the Man", by Ferdinand C. Igle- 
hart, D.D., published by The Christian Herald. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



PAGE 



Preface i^ 

I The Bending of the Twig 1 

II Bulbs and Blossoms 12 

III The Class of '80 24 

IV More College Days 41 

V A Post-graduate Course 62 

VI "In Cowboy Land" 76 

VII Victors and Spoils 97 

VIII "The Finest" Refined * . 118 

IX The Happy Warrior 133 

X Governor of the Empire State .... 164 

XI A Reluctant Vice-president 182 

XII The Presidential Plateau — First Half . 201 

XIII Elected President 229 

XIV His Greatest Victory 276 

XV Laurel and Cypress SCO 

XVI Valiant for Truth 328 

Index 361 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Photogravure Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt Frontispiece 

FAGB 

25 



Roosevelt's home while at Harvard, upper floor . 

Ell of House at Cambridge where Dining-Club met 

Members of Dining-Club, at Harvard, 1880 

Members of Dining-Club, 1905 . 

The Rough Rider; From Punch, London 

Roosevelt in the White House 

Letter from Roosevelt to the Author . 

Roosevelt Talks with Kaiser Wilhelm . 

At the Polling-Place in Oyster Bay . 

Frazier's Bronze Bas-relief of Roosevelt 



25 
43 
43 
144 
211 
23G 
292 
302 
347 



ROOSEVELT: 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

CHAPTER I 

THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 

My earliest recollection of Theodore Roosevelt is 
still fresh in my memorj^ I saw him, really to dis- 
tinguish him for the first time, in the transept of 
]\Iemorial Hall, Cambridge, in October, Eighteen 
Hundred Seventy- Six — our Freshman year. 

I had come out of the dining-hall, and, as I 
walked toward the outer door, I noticed three fellow 
students engaged in animated discussion. What 
the topic was I knew not. But I was struck by the 
earnestness with which one of them was setting 
forth some point to the other two, in turn. 

The speaker emphasized his points by vigorous 
movements of his head and by striking his right fist 
into his left palm. He was a lad of medium height. 
His slightly curling hair was a light brown color, 
and he wore side whiskers. Behind his spectacles I 
could see his keen blue eyes flash, and he seemed 



2 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

entirely absorbed in his speaking. His words 
poured out rapidly, and he fairly stammered in his 
eagerness to express his ideas. He frowned as he 
talked, yet at times he paused and smiled. And I 
noted, for the first time, his singular yet winning 
expression as his short upper lip bared his teeth. 

"Who is he ?" I asked of the friend with me. And 
the reply came, with an amused smile, "Oh, that's 
Teddy Roosevelt, one of our '80 men." 

From that point of time on through forty years 
Roosevelt became to me more and more a marked 
personality. And my acquaintance with him, be- 
ginning slenderly, enlarged and strengthened until 
I counted myself, through the great rich years of 
his mature power and world-wide fame, one of his 
most appreciative and devoted friends. 

Upon the period of his life which lay back of my 
first sight of him — the period of his childhood 
and boyhood — I am compelled, of course, to look 
through eyes other than my own. Indeed, chiefly — 
like fellow chroniclers of his life — through his own 
eyes. For to him, in his "Autobiography", are we 
mainly indebted for such knowledge as we have of 
his earliest years. 

Lucius Eugene Chittenden, at one time private 
secretary to Abraham Lincoln, kept a diary and 
afterward wrote "Memories" of the great man 
whom he served. And in them he drops the casual. 



THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 3 

naive remark, "Had I known, at the time, how great 
a man Lincoln was, I could have written far more 
details about him than I did." 

Would that he had better known the great 
Emancipator. And would that some friend and 
associate of the boy Roosevelt could have discerned 
the unfolding greatness in him and set down ten 
times the number of incidents and anecdotes, say- 
ings and conversations, which we treasure, in the all 
too meager Autobiography. 

I have long been interested in comparing him, 
the mature statesman and reformer, with himself as 
the child and the schoolboy. I take the woven 
fabric of his mature character, as it now lies exposed 
to the gaze of the whole world, and try to trace the 
threads of that firm fabric as they run back into 
his boyhood and childhood. They were tremen- 
dously strong, many of them, at his age of forty and 
fifty, but were essentially identical with the slen- 
derer, more fragile threads of his earlier years. 

Take this "thread" as an illustration. I read, not 
long ago, an account of his excursion with Earl 
Grey over English fields and meadows, on Roose- 
velt's journey back from Africa, and about the 
pleasure of the two men in their observation of the 
birds. Earl Grey expressed surprise at Roosevelt's 
interest in them and his knowledge of them. 

Trace that "thread" farther back along the 



4 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

fabric of Roosevelt's life. John Burroughs, an 
authority on such matters, declared that Roosevelt 
had remarkable familiarity with the birds of this 
country. 

Still farther back, some of us recall a somewhat 
heated controversy on nature study which ran the 
rounds of the newspapers. Roosevelt had ques- 
tioned some of the interpretations of smaller animal 
life set forth by a well-known naturalist. I forget 
which of the two disputants was correct — Roose- 
velt, I think — but the controversy showed that my 
former classmate had observed very keenly. 

Thus the thread of nature study runs through- 
out his entire life. In his college course it was 
very apparent from his choice of studies. It leaps 
into humorous prominence in that story of his ride 
from Boston to Cambridge, in the horse car, having 
beside him several live lobsters for study in a 
loosely tied package. One of the lobsters crawled 
out of the package and up into an adjacent woman 
passenger's lap, to her great alarm. Recapture 
and apologies followed. But there was the thread 
of the naturalist running through the incident. 

Back runs the naturalist thread into Roosevelt's 
childhood. He was, mentally, a good observer, 
but normal physical sight was denied him. He 
found out his deficiency when he was about twelve 
years old. But before that time, handicapped as 



THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 5 

he was, he observed insects, fish, animals, flowers, 
flora and fauna ; and there was present in him that 
genuine scientific spirit which later came into so 
full a fruition. How amusing, and yet how sig- 
nificant to the analyst, the psychologist, are the 
stories told about his "Museum of Natural His- 
tory!" Other youthful members of the family lent 
their aid, but he was the leader, and hardly out of 
pinafores. 

At that stage of his career, he became interested 
in white mice. And with a resourcefulness and 
energy which never left him but rather increased 
as years passed and physical strength increased, 
he informed the neighborhood that he would pay 
five cents for each white mouse sent to him, and 
thirty-five cents for a family of them. Result? 
The house was swamped by contributions. 

One of his acquisitions was a snapping turtle, 
which he fastened to the leg of the sink in the 
laundry. And one of the housemaids gave notice 
that she would leave unless the turtle was removed. 

A hint of the thoroughness which was always 
a marked characteristic of him comes out in the 
recorded incident that he had secured a dead wood- 
chuck and wished to set up its skeleton. And he 
told the cook to boil the body "twenty-four hours, 
so that the bones would all separate out, and not 
one be lost to science." 



6 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

The story of the dead seal, measured by him 
in front of the store, and the incident of the white 
mice, put for safe keeping into the ice chest, — a 
preservative device, surely — those stories hint at 
the same eager activity, wide range of interest, and 
vigorous originality which characterized him in 
mature life. 

Every "live boy" of any age can sympathize 
with him, as he trudged about, dragging a copy 
of one of Mayne Reid's adventure books, or Liv- 
ingstone's "Travels in Africa." That vividly 
written book of the great African missionary must 
have sown the seed, in little Theodore's mind, of 
an eager curiosity to see the land of lions and 
elephants, giraffes, and "rhinos." 

Jacob Riis is responsible for one little fragment 
of Rooseveltian biography which illustrates the 
child Theodore's daring activity. "A woman who 
lived next door to the Roosevelts in East Twen- 
tieth Street told me that once, in passing the house, 
she saw Theodore, a mere child, hanging out of a 
second-story window. She hurried and told ]Mrs. 
Roosevelt, who, as she started anxiously to catch 
the venturesome youngster, remarked, 'If the Lord 
hadn't taken care of Theodore he would have been 
killed long ago.' " 

The most significant of the early incidents of 
Roosevelt's life, of which we have record, was the 



THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 7 

amusing one which tells of his protest against an 
undeserved — as it seemed to him — reprimand by 
his mother. There was an abundance of affection 
in his childish heart for her, as in her heart for him. 
But one day he felt himself aggrieved at some 
action of hers toward him. And when came the 
time for him to say his evening prayers, he be- 
thought him of her sympathy for the Confederate 
Cause — she being of Southern birth — and he 
added a clause to his formal prayer. He prayed for 
the success of the Union arms. He even particu- 
larized. He prayed that God "would grind them 
to powder." As always, no halfway measure. 

Luckily his beloved mother had a strong sense 
of humor, which he inherited in full measure, and 
she concealed her smiles and forbade all similar 
impro\asations in the future, under penalty of 
being reported to his father, — "The only man 
whom I ever feared," Roosevelt declared in later 
life. 

That incident held the germ of one of Roose- 
velt's strongest characteristics. It was his instinc- 
tive effort to strike back at any one who attacked 
him. Submission to real or fancied injustice was 
not in his nature. In his sparring contests at 
college and in all the contests of his later life, his 
invariable action was not quiescence or endurance 
simply; but he "came back." Like a steel spring 



8 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

he recoiled upon all who struck at him. Often cir- 
cumstances did not permit him to express this 
desire. Wisdom or tact dictated some other course. 
But the instinct, the strong desire, was always 
there. In a conversation, during the latter half of 
his hfe, with his friend, John Leary, Junior, he 
said, with his characteristic vigor, "Jack, a man 
has no more right to forget an enemy than he has 
to forget a friend. I've always tried to do 
something for everybody who ever did any- 
thing for me." Then a smile, and, "But the 
regret of my life is that I have been unable to 
take proper care of all my enemies. I've had 
a million of them — too many for any man to 
attend to in an ordinary lifetime." 

This code of morality was more after the Spar- 
tan or Mosaic order than the Christian. But, in 
reviewing any man's words or in analyzing his 
character, we need to remember that his theories 
and his actions often do not coincide. Sometimes 
the man's conduct rises far above his theory. This 
was true of Roosevelt. And in his case we need 
also to remember that his sense of humor, his 
brilliant, daring spontaneity of speech often led 
him to say things which he by no means meant in 
their full, unmodified form. We know, without 
being told, that this delightful outburst of his con- 



THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 9 

cerning his enemies was followed by a laugh, 
equally delightful. 

Apropos, in passing, of Roosevelt's keen sense 
of humor, observable through his mature life, I 
cite two incidents given by the Reverend F. C. 
Iglehart, which disclose to us an early section of 
that thread of humor which was woven so largely 
into the entire fabric of his life. 

The growing boy, Roosevelt, not only betook 
himself early to books, but he made easy contacts 
with "all sorts and conditions" of boys, as far as 
opportunity offered. There, for instance, was the 
sturdy, straightforward nephew of the village 
blacksmith at Dobbs Ferry, where Theodore spent 
a summer. They were playmates, those two, and 
friends. The nephew, a year older than Theodore, 
is still living and recounts some of their operations 
and cooperations. I suspect that the relationship 
was, necessarily, a bit more feudal than democratic. 
But it gave satisfaction to both. 

One of the incidents was this. The two boys 
were playing together one day, on a pond upon 
which Theodore had a skiff. He was alone in the 
skiff at that moment; his companion sat on the 
bank. Presently two of Theodore's grown-up 
friends drove by in a carriage. At the opportune 
instant he sprang up in the frail craft, tumbled 
about, and contrived to tip the craft over, splashing 



10 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

into the water, quite out of sight. He remained 
under water a considerable time, to the delight of 
his watchful playmate but to the alarm of the de- 
ceived grown-ups. 

The other incident, revealing the boy's inherent 
drollery, is this. It was the custom in the Roose- 
velt family that summer for the senior Theodore 
Roosevelt to be driven to the train each morning 
by a "coachman" in the "depot wagon." Theodore, 
Junior, frequently accompanied his father. One 
morning, as the boy returned with the "coachman" 
to the house, he induced the man to allow him to 
don the coat and hat which made up his "livery." 
Well covered up in these, he directed his playmate, 
the blacksmith's nephew, to sit beside him on the 
box. The playmate demurred, because he was 
wearing "only this hickory shirt and this small 
straw hat, and your mother'll know me." But 
Theodore insisted, wanting the boy for his "foot- 
man", he said; and he drove to the front door. 
Then he called out, in the loudest and most "grown- 
up" tones he could summon, "Is ]Mrs. Roosevelt 
in?" The puzzled housemaid, sweeping the porch, 
replied confusedly that she was in. "Then tell 
her," enjoined the rollicking youngster, "to come 
out for a drive. If she doesn't come now she can't 
have a drive at all to-day." Whereupon, without 
waiting, perceiving that the climax had been 



THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 11 

reached, the amateur coachman drove away to the 
stable. 

Only homely little incidents, these two, but 
prophetic of the exceptionally developed sense of 
humor which the man Theodore Roosevelt mani- 
fested. Every man flatters himself that he has a 
"sense of humor." And most men have. The 
others we pass over in silent pity. The mature 
Roosevelt had the humor sense in abundant meas- 
ure. Indeed, it protected him, on countless occa- 
sions, from the deeper pains of disappointment, 
anxiety, and futile wrath. As he stood, a champion 
of truth and righteousness, before the world 
through many years, he did not wear the full 
armor described by the Apostle to the Gentiles — 
helmet, breastplate, and all the other pieces — but 
he bore a keen sword in his strong right hand and 
a polished shield upon his left arm. The sword 
was his own intrepid, combat-loving spirit, and the 
shield was his unfailing sense of humor, which 
"quenched the darts of many an adversary." 



CHAPTER II 

BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 

A few months ago I went down into my cellar 
and groped about there, in a dim light, gathering 
several kinds of bulbs. These I planted in a sunny 
spot of my garden. And I saw them, in due time, 
push up into stems and stalks, and later flower out 
in flaming colors. 

That dim cellar, with its undeveloped yet vital 
bulbs, may serve as an illustration of Roosevelt's 
life, during the period of his childhood and early 
boyhood, as it appears to me, from my present 
viewpoint. It is dim, and our knowledge of its 
contents is derived largely from Roosevelt's own 
memories. There are few persons living to-day 
who can add much to what he recollected. When 
he came to Harvard, he came out into the light. 
He began, in 1876, that group-life which was to 
continue, enlarging continuously, through his en- 
tire career. Many of his college classmates are 
living to-day and can build up a considerable body 
of information about him from their recollections. 

The interesting objective which I set before 



BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 13 

myself at this point is — to bring up out of that 
dim early period, like bulbs from their shadowy 
seclusion, the germs of those qualities in him which 
later flowered forth in luxuriance, before the eyes 
of the world. And I feel inclined, at this stage, 
to recur to those two striking qualities to which 
my first chapter adverted, — the quality of humor, 
or mirthfulness, and the quality of combativeness, 
typified by a shield and a sword. 

Roosevelt's sense of humor has more psycholog- 
ical value to the analyst than might casually be 
supposed. It shows plainly, even in his own auto- 
biographical narration of certain incidents in his 
boyhood. For example, there is delightful humor 
in his reference to his zealous efforts in the field of 
taxidermy. "Doubtless the family had their mo- 
ments of anxiety and suffering — especially when 
a well-meaning maid extracted from my taxi- 
dermist's outfit the old toothbrush with which I 
had put on the skins the arsenical soap necessary 
for their preservation, partially washed it, and then 
put it back with the rest of my wash-kit, for my 
personal use." 

Again, during his first journey abroad, he speni. 
a summer in a German family in Dresden. As in 
his American home, he was active in his "nature 
studies." And he records that, "Whenever I could 
get out into the country, I collected specimens in- 



14 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

dustriously, and enlivened the household with 
hedgehogs and other small beasts and reptiles 
which persisted in escaping from partially closed 
bureau drawers." 

During his stay at Dobbs Ferry, he became the 
possessor of a "breech-loading pin-fire double- 
barreled gun." "It was an excellent gun for a 
clumsy and often absent-minded boy," he says. 
"There was a spring to open it; and, if the mechan- 
ism became rusty, it could be opened with a brick 
without serious damage. When the cartridges 
stuck they could be removed in the same fashion." 

We may be sure that when he wrote that, forty 
years afterwards, his face wore that same fascinat- 
ing smile which became famous the world over. 
And, apropos of that smile, it may be told that he 
was never seen to laugh more delightedly than 
when, during a poltical campaign, he read the 
"story" of a reporter who described him, when he 
pressed his way to the platform, as "biting his 
way through the crowd." 

Again I recur to the closing words of the previ- 
ous chapter and to the sword in his hand, symbol 
of the valor of his spirit. That actual love of 
righteous combat, mental or physical, was one of 
his greatest assets as a reformer and a public offi- 
cial. That characteristic has been noted by- thou- 
sands, and it was pointed out by ]\Ir. Taft in his 



BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 15 

noble, tender eulogy of Roosevelt, after the latter's 
death. And a letter which has come to me, as I 
write, from a classmate, contains this statement: 
"I met Roosevelt in New York one day, just after 
he had been appointed to be Assistant Secretary 
of the Navy. I congratulated him, and suggested 
that he would now live a quiet, pleasanter life than 
had been his as Police Commissioner. But he re- 
plied, shaking his head doubtfully, 'I don't know 
about that. I like a fight. I do like a fight.' " 
And he did. But let it be noted that he liked it 
only when it was rooted in a righteous motive. 

That aggressive quality in Roosevelt first comes 
to light in the fist-fight which he, as a boy, pre- 
cipitated with two traveling companions of his own 
age. He was on his way to JNIoosehead Lake, in 
Maine, sent there with the parental hope that its 
outdoor life would strengthen him and help him 
throw off the astlmia by which he was beset and 
tortured through several of his earlier years. Not 
only was he asthmatic, but he was frail and 
physically below the average of boys of his age. 
But in spirit he was unsm-passed. And when his 
youthful fellow travelers made fun of him, he 
attacked them. "But either of them, singly, could 
handle me with easy contempt," he records. 

This discomforting experience was a turning 
point in his life. He faced the fact of his inferiority 



IG ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

in physical strength, and — true to the rare elastic- 
ity of his nature — he reacted upon it and set 
about correcting his defects. His parents and all 
his older friends had realized his bodily disability 
before he did. And all the world now looks back 
upon his weak, suffering childhood with pity and 
wonder, — pity for him as he seemed so poorly 
equipped for the struggle of life, and wonder that 
he so transformed his weakness into strength. 

He accomplished this by the persistent exercise 
of his most unique gift, — an indomitable will. 
Other qualities he had which counted in his mastery 
of life, but his will was marvelous, almost miracu- 
lous. If he had been born two thousand years or 
more ago, in Greece, in Sparta, his infant fate 
would have been to be exposed to lingering death 
on Mount Tagytus, with other Spartan defectives. 
His capacity for survival and helpful citizenship 
would have been considered slender and negligible. 
But the record of his sheltered early life not only 
suggests the high distance which the human race 
has come, as indicated by its care for the weak and 
helpless members of society, but it proclaims also 
the miracle which an indomitable human spirit can 
accomplish, in its mastery of its body. 

His father, always wise and sympathetic, en- 
couraged the boy to enter into such sports and 
pastimes as would develop such slender physical 



BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 17 

powers as he had. And the walking, sparring, 
riding, rowing, and other sports which he took up 
he continued throughout his hfe. That near- 
sightedness which was so evident during his entire 
career became known to him when he was thirteen 
years of age. Before that time, hke most children 
similarly handicapped, he had not realized — nor 
had his relatives and friends — his defects of sight. 
But spectacles for his eyes were promptly pro- 
vided, and a new world stood revealed before him. 

Many people have expressed surprise that with 
his poor eyesight he could yet attain such profi- 
ciency in "nature study." But the spectacles 
largely remedied his visual defects; and, mentally, 
he was keenly observant. Then, too, his hearing 
was always acute, and this was a great asset in his 
study of birds; he caught their calls and songs 
usually before he identified their plumage and 
movements. 

One point may here be noted, as we recall the 
several kinds of pastimes which he entered into as 
a boy. These were the rowing and sailing on the 
waters of Long Island Sound. Most boys are 
eager for boats, but most boys pass on from row- 
boats to sailboats. They soon prefer the latter 
kind. But Roosevelt was unique in that he always 
preferred rowing to sailing. And just here, in this 
preference, we discover one of his striking char- 



18 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

acteristics. Evidently he preferred the rowing 
because it gave him something to do. He was 
incessantly active. And, naturally, he preferred 
using his strength on the oars to sitting hstlessly 
at a tiller or a wheel. 

This stage of our survey may properly be the 
one where attention is called to the fact that Roose- 
velt was essentially a "self-made" man. That term 
has been applied to many men, especially in this 
land of comparatively free development and un- 
restricted opportunity. But, usually, if those 
men's careers are closely examined, it will be found 
that their advance, their "rise," has been brought 
about more by their alteration of their environment 
and by their seizing opportunities, than by their 
conscious alteration of their own characters. 

Thus, strictly speaking, they have not been self- 
made, or remade, in any marked degree. But, in 
Roosevelt's case, there was a conscious, determined 
remaking of his mental qualities. He was by 
nature shy and self-distrustful, but in his mature 
and pubHc hfe — let me say, with a smile — those 
qualities were never attributed to him. He elimi- 
nated them. And by nature he was timid. He 
records this, with all frankness, of himself. But 
he also records his method of correcting that de- 
fect. He says, "I read a passage, in one of the 
novelist Marryat's books, wher.e the hero explains 



BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 19 

how to acquire the quality of fearlessness. 'A man 
should keep such a grip on himself that he can act 
as if he were unafraid. And, in time, he will be- 
come unafraid.' " 

This, analyzed, is of course "Will." And this 
was possessed by Roosevelt in an exceptional meas- 
ure. He put it forth upon his emotional nature, 
and he became fearless, — physically, mentally, and 
morally. This was done consciously. He tells us, 
"I trained myself painfully and laboriously, not 
only as regards my body but as regards my soul 
and spirit." 

Roosevelt's will, recognized by him and de- 
veloped by him, simply supplemented and directed 
a natural activity which was his always, even back 
in those pinafore days when he made a somewhat 
mordant attack upon his child-sister, and was duly 
chastised, after pursuit and capture by his inexor- 
able father. He was easily the leader in all games 
among his young relatives. He started the family 
"Museum of Natural History." He was not con- 
tent to observe and wonder and feel delight at the 
novel objects which he found about him. He was 
enterprising, resourceful, original. And the "Mu- 
seum" resulted. 

Although the boy Theodore's most pronounced 
intellectual bent was toward natural science, other 
studies had not been neglected. His feeble 



20 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

physique, through his earhest years, made of him 
a "home boy", and he was not put through the 
usual pubhc-school course of instruction. But his 
Aunt Anna, as a member of the household, guided 
him through the intricacies of "the three R's", and 
at one time a French governess lived with the 
family. This first-hand instruction in French 
gave the boy a famiharity with the language which 
he retained throughout his life. 

The earlier of the two trips abroad which he 
made as a boy appears, on his own statement, to 
have given him but little. At ten years of age, a 
boy cannot get much more in Europe than in the 
United States. The charms of its history and art 
elude him. But, four years later, in the winter of 
1872 and 1873, he sailed again, with his family, 
across the Atlantic. And on this trip he went as 
far as Egypt. His general reading had prepared 
him for the picturesque remains of the Nile's 
ancient cities, and he greatly enjoyed what he saw. 
Yet it must be noted that even on this journey, 
as on the first one, the naturalist spirit dominated. 
On the Nile he was above all else a collector of 
birds. Indeed, before the party had set forth from 
their native land, Theodore had provided himself 
with a supply of pink-colored "Roosevelt Museum 
labels" for use on this "adventurous trip", as it 
seemed to him. 



BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 21 

As we range about, through this dim pre-col- 
legiate life of our great American, finding in his 
recorded words and acts the germs of the great 
deeds which characterized him later, we ask again 
and again, "But what was the one dominant quality 
in him which gave him the greatness which the 
world now ascribes to him?" 

We can pick out several without which he could 
not have achieved what he did. Yet, back of all 
the others, the one factor which most arrests our 
attention is the dynamic factor, the energ}^ which 
seemed never to tire and drove him to express him- 
self in scores of ways, joining now with one group 
of faculties and now with another, so that not only 
was "No human endeavor outside his range of 
interest", as the ancient phrase put it, but there 
was hardly one which he did not actually seek and 
eagerly pursue and in it attain excellence. The 
driving power in this phenomenal man combined 
chemically with all his varied faculties and interests 
and made them function with rare vigor. 

This was the same element which figured in his 
remaking of himself, physically and spiritually. 
When Pandora, in the ancient legend, looked into 
her box of gifts, bestowed by the gods, she found 
that all the gifts had escaped, save hope only. 
When the sickly child Theodore examined his gift- 



22 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

box, he found that almost his only valuable pos- 
session was his will. Straightway, with that he 
began to remake his life, corporeal and spiritual. 
And, as it transpired afterward, he did much to 
remake, to help reform his beloved country. Dis- 
covering that dauntless will within his breast, he 
found what Archimedes vainly sought, — a fulcrum 
by which his native land and even the entire world 
might be moved, and moved forward. 

This dynamic element in Roosevelt was what 
John Morley sensed when he said, in England, 
after visiting the United States : "I saw there two 
things which were extraordinary — Niagara Falls 
and Theodore Roosevelt." Yes, and was it not 
Power which he saw in both? Was it not what was 
detected in Napoleon Bonaparte by that member 
of the Directory, in 1799, who said to a fellow 
member, as Bonaparte, a new man, entered the 
assembly hall and looked about him, "I think that 
in him we have found our master"? 

The dynamic element in both Bonaparte and 
Roosevelt was strikingly similar. But in other 
essential qualities they differed widely. The 
Corsican brigand looked out upon the world as an 
arena where he might exalt himself by ruthless 
victories. The American patriot ^ — ^ whose plans 
rarely ranged beyond the borders of his native 



BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 23 

land — looked forth over that beloved land as his 
"world", and in the words of King Arthur of the 
Round Table, he "longed for power on that dark 
world to lighten it, and power on that dead world 
to make it live.'* 



CHAPTER III 

THE CLASS OF '80 

Almost any graduate of almost any class of 
almost any college or university in the United 
States will tell you, in confidence, that his class 
was "The famous class of ", or "The well- 
known class of ", and then the year is named. 

Now and then some daring graduate breaks 
through the commonplace and declares that his 
class was remarkable for not being remarkable. 

We of the Harvard Class of eighteen hundred 
and eighty feel, however, that we need not resort 
to this tour de force, but may say proudly — yet 
quietly and modestly, as is becoming in those who 
but reflect glory — that we are indeed of "the fa- 
mous class of '80." And our class is famous 
largely because Theodore Roosevelt entered it, in 
1876, and graduated with it. 

When he came to Harvard, and while he re- 
mained there, his life was of one piece with his 
previous life. It was no fault of his that he had 
been born into a family that was characterized by 
all the conventions and customs of thinking and 




PHOTO BY Wll 



NDERWOOD 



ROOSKVELT's ][()ME WIIILK at HARVAliD; IPl'Eli FLOOR. 




■■■• - ., ."='»*. I *-: \ 



PHOTO B ' ■ ■ FRWOOD 

Ef,L OK HOUi^E AT CAMBRiruiE WHERE DINIXG-CUIB MET. 



THE CLASS OF '80 25 

acting which, the world over, mark what are called 
"the best people." When he came to Harvard, he 
continued to live, as far as was possible in his new 
environment, according to his previous practice. 
When he drove about over Cambridge in his dog- 
cart — a unique vehicle and much noticed — he did 
it as naturally as he had done it previously at home. 

He was exceptionally and intensely individual. 
Later he became much more consciously com- 
munal, social. His choice of rooms in a private 
house at Number 16 (now Number 38) Winthrop 
Street, Cambridge, instead of rooms in a college 
dormitory, and his retention of that domicile 
throughout his college course was an unconscious 
expression of his instinctive individualism. He 
wished independence. Then, too, he was much 
absorbed at that date in the idea of making natural 
history the pursuit of his hfe. And he desired 
greater freedom in his collecting of "specimens" 
than probably would be allowed him in a college 
dormitory. 

From the first he was a striking figure among 
his college mates. I have already mentioned my 
own first sight of him, as he argued vehemently 
with two friends in the transept of Memorial Hall. 
To the casual observer he was noticeable because 
of his side whiskers — quite uncommon among his 
fellow collegians — and his quick abrupt ways. To 



26 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

those persons who knew him more closely he was 
always a surprising personality. He was different 
from most or all other undergi-aduates, yet there 
was no pose about him; he was entirely simple and 
considerably self-absorbed. 

Any one who entered his study at Number 16 
Winthrop Street found there an apartment differ- 
ent essentially from all other students' rooms. It 
reflected his own personality and past. It was 
decorated not only with the usual pictures and 
bookcases which would be expected in a lad of his 
training and background of home life, but it con- 
tained several stuffed birds and beasts and a few 
mounted antlers, — fruits of his own prowess in 
hunting and his skill as a taxidermist. 

Seeking, as I am doing, for indications of his 
unfolding character, at this college period, as in 
earlier periods, I find significant testimony to his 
remarkable self-rehance and independence of the 
opinions and actions of his companions. This 
quality was evinced even in his face, as I recall it, 
and now shows in his photograph. Take that 
photograph of him as he appeared at his time of 
graduation. It is easy, and pseudo-scientific, to 
read into a man's cranial or facial formation, shown 
by his photograph, his mental characteristics, — 
after one has become famihar with them. Never- 
theless, the photograph of Roosevelt's face when 



THE CLASS OF '80 27 

a student at Harvard shows, to any impartial ob- 
server, at least two qualities. First, his eyes, which 
are open, frank, and fearless, manifest plainly that 
sincerity of nature which was always his. Later 
photogi'aphs of him show those frank, ingenuous 
eyes closing more and more — as do the eyes of 
most men who go out into the competitions of life 
— for they are learning, by stern experience, to 
conceal their own purposes and to discern the pur- 
poses of some rival or opponent. But, essentially, 
all through his life, and especially in his college 
days, he loved what was real and true, and he 
always declared for it. 

This sometimes made him the butt of waggish 
friends. For naturally he took men at their own 
word; and it was easy for a frivolous, facetious 
companion to start him, by some statement, into 
a heated discussion. At the meetings of the 
Hasty Pudding Club, on several occasions, 
he was lured by some cooler member into 
debate for exhibition purposes. And his eager 
contention for his side of the question increased 
a natural hesitancy of speech in him, and 
his stumbling, stammering words brought his 
listeners to laughter. William Roscoe Thayer, in 
his admirable volume on Roosevelt, testifies to his 
tumultuous and sometimes inarticulate speech. 
Mr. Thayer refers to a dinner given in 1879 by 



28 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

the Harvard Crimson, to which Roosevelt was in- 
vited as a representative of the Harvard Advocate. 
In his brief address on that occasion, Roosevelt 
showed great shyness and hurried over his sentences 
"as skaters hurry over thin ice." And he must 
have been fully aware of these, his defects of public 
speech, for he told at this dinner the anecdote (Mr. 
Thayer narrates) about a stammering man recom- 
mending — with many grimaces and gaspings — 
the doctor who had cured Mm. 

All this immaturity of speech was surmounted 
by Roosevelt later, and he became a most interest- 
ing and convincing campaign speaker, although 
never an eloquent speaker, as the word is usually 
defined. 

Again, as to his college photograph. That 
strong, defiant chin ought to tell any acute observer 
the story of Roosevelt's dogged determination, his 
rare power of concentration, his lifelong surmount- 
ing of defects within and obstacles without. The 
chin alone did not bring his success. Other de- 
termined chins there have been. But his had an 
exceptional brain behind it. And, in combination, 
it was a large factor in the achievements of Roose- 
velt's strenuous life. 

Let us look, now, at two or three of the recorded 
incidents of his college life. They are not only 
interesting in themselves, but to me, as I keep in 



THE CLASS OF '80 29 

mind my psychological objective, they are dis- 
tinctly illuminating as to Roosevelt's character. 

Back of his domicile on Winthrop Street was a 
stable. One night two students, who occupied 
rooms in the same house with Roosevelt, heard 
neighs and screams from a horse in that stable. 
And they conferred sleepily together as to the 
advisability of looking into the matter. Finally, 
after several minutes had elapsed and the cries did 
not cease, they arose reluctantly, threw on some 
garments, and went out of the house and across the 
alley, to investigate. 

They found the stable door open. And they 
found Theodore Roosevelt already on the spot, 
trjdng to get the frightened horse out of his trouble. 
The animal had put his leg through a hole in the 
side of the stall. Roosevelt had heard the outcries 
and straightway had climbed down from his sec- 
ond-story room and had rendered "first aid." The 
point of real interest is — not only his sympathy 
with the horse — • but his taking hold of the situation 
promptly and unaided. And that was always his 
self-rehant, independent way. Little mattered it 
to him, throughout his life, what others did or 
thought about a worthy cause or a pressing public 
need. He went at the matter himself. 

The same instinct for independent self-assertion 
was evinced when he marched in the Republican 



30 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

campaign procession, through Boston streets, one 
torch-ht evening, soon after we entered college. 
At one point along the route, sundry ribald fellows, 
on an adjacent roof, contributed not only defama- 
tory epithets to the Hue of ardent young Repub- 
licans below, but made unpleasant contributions of 
various noxious articles. Their actions drew 
angry protests from their helpless victims. But it 
is told that on that adventurous night, young 
Roosevelt — "Teddy" then called — became known 
to many of his classmates by stepping out of the 
ranks, shaking his fist at the craven crew on the 
roof, and crying to his companions, "Come, fellows! 
Let's go up and smash those blackguards. Let's 
kill 'em!" 

Whether literally true or a trifle apocryphal, 
this incident offers me so good a suggestion that I 
risk using it. It shows the reacting spirit of the 
young Freshman. He was not content to endure, 
like his companions, without retaliation. He was 
eager to get back at the rowdies, storm them in 
their stronghold, and take vengeance on them for 
their unfair attack. 

When our "Class of '80" entered college, the 
four classes made a total of about eight hundred 
students. In some ways so small an undergraduate 
body offered advantages now impossible. But 
then as now, the problem regarding each man who 



THE CLASS OF *80 31 

entered was, "How much of the two main branches 
of education will he lay hold of?" There was and 
is, on the one hand, the education which comes from 
an accumulation of facts, an acquisition of knowl- 
edge. On the other hand, there is the education 
which means development of the man's capacity 
and powers. 

The striking conviction which is forced upon us, 
in Roosevelt's case, from our observation of hun — 
and from what he observed in himself, in retrospect 
— is that he did not alter essentially in character 
and power in college, and that the chief part of his 
accumulation of facts came through his own private 
reading, as often outside his prescribed courses as 
within them. But that he did good work in his 
prescribed and elected subjects is shown by his 
record, which tells us that he gi'aduated in the 
upper eighth of his class, he was made a member 
of the Phi Beta Kappa, and he received "honorable 
mention" in Natural History. 

When he entered college, bringing with him the 
habits and tastes of his past, he purposed giving 
himself to a lifelong study of natural history. The 
"Museum" of his childhood had expressed a vital 
interest and enthusiasm of his nature. But he was 
soon deflected from his purpose by the bookish, 
theoretical, laboratory methods then in vogue at 
Harvard, — as at most other colleges. He was 



32 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

eager to get out among the living birds and beasts, 
and he was bored by the requirements of micro- 
scopic and anatomical investigation. 

This eager desire of his to get at the living 
realities of "natural history" is the more note- 
worthy when we remember that he was no stranger 
to the printed page. He was already an omnivor- 
ous reader. But he saw that while some things 
could be learned only through books, other things 
• — as the best and most real things in natural his- 
tory — should be learned at first hand. Still this 
was not so much a defect of the college curriculum 
as it was a necessary evil. Obviously Harvard 
could not send all her ardent young naturalists to 
the four corners of the earth to study birds and 
beasts in their natural enviromnent. This kind 
of study Roosevelt really pursued later, by his 
travels and explorations. 

The new life of college opened up to Roosevelt, 
as to every college student, social, intellectual and 
— not least, in his case — physical development. 
When our class entered in 1876 our men began 
with zeal to exercise at the chest weights and other 
apparatus. But in a month many of them flagged 
and came no more. Not so Roosevelt. Through- 
out his college life, as through all his later life, he 
gave constant attention to athletic exercise. And 
he did it, as he did so many other things, with the 



THE CLASS OF '80 33 

deliberate intention of building up his physical 
strength, which he knew to be the basis of all other 
efforts which he might wish to put forth. 

Doctor Dudley A. Sargent, at that time in 
charge of the g\Tnnasium and the physical culture 
of the students, gave us all a minute scientific ex- 
amination. I quote briefly from his report, kindly 
loaned me by him: 

"Theodore Roosevelt was examined in Cam- 
bridge in IMarch, 1880, when he was twenty-one 
years and five months old. At this time, he weighed 
136 pounds. His total stretch of arms, which 
would also include the breadth of his shoulders, 
was less than his total height; which is seldom the 
case in fully developed men. Notwithstanding his 
rather small frame and mediocre muscular devel- 
opment, his total strength test was only surpassed 
by five per cent, of those in college at this time. 
His superior strength was largely due to the 
mechanical advantage he gained by his short arms. 
But he must have felt himself severely handicapped 
for boxing, rowing, and other forms of athletics, 
by his very short arms. In looking over the 
gymnasium record of this remarkable young man, 
we find the only physical measurements in which 
he surpassed his classmates were in the girth of 
his head and neck. All his muscle measurements 
were below the average, those of his legs especially 



34 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

so. As soon as I pointed out his strong points as 
well as his physical weaknesses, he got busy. He 
realized that during the formative period of his 
youth, when other boys were developing their arms, 
chest and legs in doing gymnastic stunts and pur- 
suing athletic exercises, he had been bent over his 
books, cramming his brain with all sorts of miscel- 
laneous information. He told me that he did some 
work in a gymnasium before coming to college, and 
in this way developed the strength of arms and 
chest shown in his strength test. 

"Roosevelt seemed to realize the fundamental 
truth that what one gets out of any physical effort 
depends largely upon the strength and energy he 
puts into it — for he threw himself into his body- 
building work, the short time he remained in col- 
lege, with the greatest interest and enthusiasm. I 
regret very much that I never had an opportunity 
to examine Mr. Roosevelt later in his life. That 
he should have been able apparently to add so 
much to his physical vigor and powers of endur- 
ance, after leaving college, so as to have been re- 
garded by many people as a 'human dynamo', — is 
a remarkable occurrence, considering his poor 
physical foundation in his youth. Roosevelt's life 
history furnishes one of the best illustrations with 
which I am acquainted, of what may be done in 
middle life by a fixed determination and a resolute 



THE CLASS OF '80 35 

will to overcome youthful physical defects and 
deficiencies." 

When Doctor Sargent gave Roosevelt his 
physical examination he made some jesting remark 
about the young man's slight development in the 
legs. That remark was enough to start Roosevelt 
on an attempt to remedy the defect. "But what 
shall I do to develop them?" he asked. And Doc- 
tor Sargent rephed lightly, "Oh, I suppose you 
might take to skipping rope, like the girls." 

Enough said. Roosevelt straightway procured 
a skipping rope, and on many an afternoon he 
might have been seen upon the piazza at Number 
16 Winthrop Street, vigorously using it as sug- 
gested. His original method at first caused 
amused comment on the part of his friends. But 
that sort of thing never troubled him. Tempera- 
mentally, he was always indifferent to it, although 
later in his life he learned — as he learned so many 
things, out in the competitive world — the value 
and power of public opinion. The next step came 
when several of his friends took up the same exer- 
cise, showing that he already had influence among 
these friends. 

The same rational purpose lay back of all his 
sports. He never cared for the usual college 
games, football, bas^all, and the rest. But he 
continued in Cambridge the interest in boxing 



36 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

which had been aroused in him as a boy at Oyster 
Bay. The boxing undoubtedly gave him, value 
for value, more returns of exercise and strength 
than almost any other form of exercise could have 
given. Then, too, it gratified that joyous sense 
of personal combat which was always strong in him 
from infancy to age. 

Those who boxed or sparred with Roosevelt, in 
public or in private, have told me warmly of his 
marked adherence to fair play. This was the 
"square deal" in its infancy. And there is record 
of one famous bout in which he took part, where 
his antagonist struck him and drew blood, after 
the referee had ordered a halt. The indignant 
spectators broke into a noisy protest against his 
antagonist. "Foul blow! Foul blow!" they cried. 
But Roosevelt, wiping his bleeding nose with one 
hand, held up the other for silence, and then ex- 
claimed, "He didn't hear the referee, fellows. I 
know he didn't hear him." Whereupon cheers 
went up for sturdy fair-minded "Teddy." 

He took, in all, many lessons in the science of 
fisticuffs, and his skill stood him in good stead on 
several occasions in his life. But he had not the 
physique to put him among the best. He was not 
over five feet eight inches in height, and his reach 
was not great. Still, he was extremely quick and 
experienced, and nobody in college, of his weight 



THE CLASS OF '80 37 

and inches, could stand up long against him. His 
hands were small. I have often, in later years, 
glanced at his small hands and thought how little 
adapted they seemed for the boxing-gloves and 
other rough sports, as also for the vigorous de- 
mands upon him as a hunter of "big game." 

Whatever Roosevelt happened to be doing at 
a given moment, that thing he did with enormous 
energy. Even when he was reading — perhaps in 
a fellow student's room, and the room full of noisy, 
rollicking mates, he clutched the book with both 
hands, generally at the top on the under side, and 
all his energy, physical as well as mental, seemed 
to be concentrated on the act. One of our class- 
mates has told me that on a certain occasion when 
Roosevelt was in this classmate's room and was 
discussing some subject, he became so strenuous 
that he broke a chair with which he was emphasiz- 
ing some point in the discussion. And I remember 
distinctly listening to him at an Exchange Club 
dinner, many years after college, where he was 
addressing several hundred men on technical points 
in hunting. The markings and warning signals 
of rabbits and deer I think was one of his topics. 
And in listening to his vigorous sentences and in 
observing his equally vigorous gestures, one might 
have supposed that the speaker was holding forth 
on his one special life-theme. Whereas, at that 



38 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

period in his public career, he was carrying on 
effectively scores of projects and was bearing 
heavy burdens of national policy. 

In those college daj^s of '76-'80, Roosevelt had 
all his mental and physical energy and less sophis- 
tication than he acquired, inevitably, afterward. 
In our classrooms, in our lecture hours, it was not 
often that any student broke in upon the smoothly 
flowing current of the professorial address. But 
Roosevelt did this again and again, naively, with 
the evident aim of getting at the more detailed 
truth of the subject. One of my classmates, who 
was in his section of Political Economy ( Pol. Econ., 
for short) writes me that he recalls Roosevelt's 
pushing questions at the instructor and even de- 
bating points with him. This novel action made 
Roosevelt a subject of wonder and comment. Free 
Trade was the undergraduate fetich, at Harvard, 
at that epoch, and probably was the topic most 
debated. 

Another letter from another classmate goes 
more into detail. I quote from the letter, literally : 
"I recall an incident in one of the classes when the 

instructor. Professor D , a much beloved man, 

was discussing differences between curly-haired 
races and those with straight hair. The opinion 
was presented by him that straight-haired races 



THE CLASS OF '80 39 

greatly excelled. Whereupon Roosevelt — you re- 
member he had brown curly hair — arose and de- 
clared, very forcibly, that he did not agree with 
the instructor. At once the whole section 'Wooded 
up', with much laughter. And Professor D — — - 
joined in it. Roosevelt was by no means dismayed, 
but, now with his smile, stuck to his point. 'I'm 
right in my view, just the same.' Then he sat 
down." 

From a classmate's letter I quote : "I was with 
Roosevelt in a Rhetoric section. Just who the in- 
structor was I cannot say. But I remember that it 
was always difficult to get any definite statement 
out of him, on any subject. One day Roosevelt 
tried. I remember distinctly his vain efforts to 
get a 'Yes' or 'No' in reply to his question. 
Perhaps so brief a reply could not have been 
given. At any rate, Roosevelt did not get it. 
And I recall distinctly his characteristic and un- 
concealed gesture of impatience and disgust as he 
settled back in his seat." 

From another source I have an illustration of 
the same unquenchable spirit. Roosevelt engaged 
in a public debate at the Harvard Union, then 
situated on Main Street, near Central Square. 
What the topic of debate was I do not know. But 
Roosevelt's side lost, as adjudged by the referee 



40 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

committee. He acquiesced cheerfully in their de- 
cision, and at the close of the meeting, going up to 
the two opponents and shaking hands cordially, he 
congratulated them on their good work. Then he 
added firmly, "But we had the right of the ques- 
tion, for all that." 



CHAPTER IV 

MOKE COLLEGE DAYS 

During the three or four years after Roosevelt's 
graduation, his character underwent great changes. 
But through the four years of his college course 
he remained substantially the same, except for the 
steady, normal acquisition of knowledge and de- 
velopment of character which would be expected of 
any collegian. 

When he came to college his family forbears 
and social background were not unknown to va- 
rious members of the Freshman class, and he was 
welcomed as a man eligible to all the social advan- 
tages at Cambridge which his position implied. In 
Roosevelt's college days there were, roughly speak- 
ing, some forty societies among the students. How 
far Roosevelt sought admission to these organiza- 
tions and how much he was sought for, I cannot 
say. Not only was he a "desirable", but he cer- 
tainly would have applied for admission, if he had 
desired it, at any door where such application was 
proper. 

Accordingly he became a member of thirteen 



42 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

of the forty societies, some of these being the In- 
stitute, Hasty Pudding, Porcelhan, Rifle Club, 
Glee Club (Associate Member), Art Club, D. K. 
Society, Finance Club, Athletic Association, and 
Natural History Society. In addition he was an 
editor of the Harvard Advocate during his Senior 
year ; and — as already mentioned — he was made a 
Phi Beta Kappa man. 

In these various clubs he fulfilled his duties ac- 
ceptably and often with distinction. Perhaps 
among them all, the one where he was least ade- 
quate was the Porcelhan. I was not of Porcellian 
timber myself, and have no first-hand knowledge 
of the matter. But from a friend, a college mate, 
I gather that the seripus and almost austere young 
Knickerbocker did not find the aims and methods 
of that social group very much to his liking. Nor 
in turn was he felt to be, by his fellow members, 
an enthusiastic sjTnpathizer in their club life. 
There was nothing seriously out of joint in his 
membership, but he did not care much for the 
frivolities of ordinary group-conversation, and he 
drew a very strict line of restraint for himself in 
all matters convivial. 

The group of which he was most vitally a part in 
college was undoubtedly his dining club. A group 
of eight men it was, as originally formed in the 
Freshman year, and later a group of six. The club 




MK.MUEKS OF J)l NING-CLUB, AT IIAKVAHK, IKSO. 




MEMBRliS OF DTNTNG-('I>T"P., 1905. 



MORE COLLEGE DAYS 43 

met at "Mrs. Wilson's", now Number 62 Brat- 
tle Street, Cambridge. And their daily con- 
tact brought the men very closely together. Of 
course all kinds of topics were discussed, and often 
differences of opinion brought on heated debates. 
I am told that eager and excited as Roosevelt 
usually became in discussing a subject, he rarely, 
if ever, wholly lost his self-control. Some of the 
others, on the contrary, did at times go beyond 
their rational poise. And it frequently resulted in 
Roosevelt's looking up from his plate — to which 
he usually gave his close, near-sighted attention — 
and exclaiming, "I say now, fellows, don't let's get 
too hot over this matter! We can't all see things 
just alike. Now, let up a little, do!" 

And thus, many a time, he was a veritable peace- 
maker for that ardent little group. 

He usually ate heartily, I am told. "Two helps" 
being nearly always called for by him. When he 
received his portion, he was accustomed to retain 
his spectacles and prepare it carefully on his plate. 
When prepared, he took off his glasses and de- 
voted himself pretty exclusively to eating. He 
seemed to be keeping up a line of absorbed thought 
as he ate. As one of this group told me, "He did 
not seem to enjoy eating very much, but ate as we 
might stoke a furnace — because it must be done. 
He did not live to eat, but he ate to live." He 



44 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

seems to have had a deliberate purpose in this 
matter of eating, as he did in nearly all his acts. 
Many years afterward, when he was starting upon 
what looked like an exhausting political campaign, 
he said — in sketching his plans to a former college 
classmate — "And I'm going to eat. If a man 
doesn't eat, he can't work." 

At times, in the intimate little dining club, he 
put on his glasses and joined in some discussion. 
Not frequently, but always with vigor. Apropos 
of his offices as peacemaker, I recall the account 
given of another attempt of his to quiet a noisy 
gi'oup. One evening he and several friends went 
to a theater in Boston. After the performance 
they drifted into "Ober's" — a somewhat promiscu- 
ous restaurant just back of Washington Street, 
near Winter Street. Here "all sorts and condi- 
tions" of men — and women — and drink — were 
to be found. Roosevelt's group became somewhat 
heated and enthusiastic and demonstrative. There 
was no saying what the climax might have been. 
Suddenly Roosevelt leaped upon a table and, ges- 
turing vigorously, cried out above the din, "I say, 
fellows, let's not go too far! We mustn't carry 
this thing too far. We've about reached the limit, 
fellows. Let's get out!" 

Somebody bigger and stronger than himself 
promptly pulled him off the table, amid a roar of 



MORE COLLEGE DAYS 45 

I good-natured laughter. And he and his noisy com- 
panions soon started for the sequestered, academic 
groves of Cambridge. 

There was never any danger to his reputation 
as a vigorous, virile fellow in his doing a thing of 
that sort. His game qualities in sparring and 
I wrestling and in debate were too well known for 
I that. As one man who had sparred and wrestled 
'> with him frequently said to me recently, "He was 
such a fair-minded fellow. Open, square, generous, 
an awfully fierce fighter, but always a good sport." 
Altogether Roosevelt, in his college days, took 
I his place as a somewhat unique personality. The 
I normal conventional kind of man could not make 
' him out, but respected and wondered at him. 
! Whether he would turn out a crank or a leader of 
i some new order stood a puzzling question. Wil- 
liam Roscoe Thayer, Harvard '81, speaks of sitting 
with Roosevelt on the window seat of a room in 
Holworthy, and chatting about what they intended 
to do after their college course. "I'm going to 
try to help the cause of better government in New 
York City," declared Roosevelt, "although I don't 
know exactly how." And Thayer comments, "I 
looked at him inquiringly and wondered whether 
he was the real thing or only a bundle of eccentrici- 
ties." Results have shown that he was indeed "the 
real thing." 



46 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Again and again his classmates have been asked, 
"Did you see signs in him, in those days, of the 
greatness which he afterward showed?" I do not 
find anybody except Charles- G. Washburn, of 
our class, who quite asserts that he saw greatness 
in Roosevelt in college. Washburn was one of the 
original eight members of the dining club previ- 
ously mentioned and had opportunities to know 
him well. A few years ago he wrote an excellent 
and discriminating book about this classmate whom 
he profoundly admired. In it he says, "It became 
evident very early that Roosevelt was a person 
sui generis and not to be judged by ordinary stand- 
ards. Very early in our college life I came to 
believe in his star of destiny." 

I have implied, perhaps, in my recital of his 
outspokenness in the classroom, that he was not 
unduly sensitive and shy. The whole truth of the 
matter is that he was really shy, but he persist- 
ently struggled, in this field as in so many others, 
to overcome a natural defect which he saw tended 
to hamper him in whatever work he might engage 
in. There are several pieces of evidence pointing 
to this conclusion. To any person who saw and 
heard him frequently, in his later public life, as he 
made speeches and gave addresses countless in 
number, it might have seemed as if he had never 
known shyness or stage fright. 



MORE COLLEGE DAYS 4T 

One incident which reveals his undergraduate 
shyness and sensitiveness has been given me by one 
of the participants in the scene. It appears that 
a committee of three students presented themselves 
before President Ehot, to state some grievance. 
Roosevelt was to be the spokesman. The Presi- 
dent entered the room. No American citizen whom 
I have ever known, and no European royalty 
whom I have ever seen equaled him in dignity and 
majesty of mien. And when Roosevelt confronted 
that dignity and majesty, his "tongue clave to the 
roof of his mouth", — for a moment only. Then 
he burst out, "Mr. Eliot, I am President Roose- 
velt — ," which confused him still more, and for 
several moments he could say nothing. 

All this timidity he triumphed over, in due time. 
Doctor Edward Everett Hale, a past master in 
public speaking, was once asked by an eager but 
shy young man how he could overcome his extreme 
shyness in public. "Speak every time anybody 
asks you to," replied the honored author of "The 
Man Without a Country." And the advice was 
sound, Roosevelt's experience in New York 
politics took away all his shyness. 

In private, he never had any real shyness about 
talking, although as a child he had always spoken 
rapidly, and sometimes, in his eagerness, incoher- 
ently. But his difficulty was one of the tongue 



48 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

and larynx, not of the mind and will. He could 
talk, and at times he could refrain from talking. 
One of my classmates, a most genial, likeable 
man, has given me an illustration of this from his 
own experience. Speaking of hunting and other 
outdoor sports, my friend said: "That was one of 
the points I held in common with Roosevelt, at 
college. I liked shooting. And he went, again 
and again, up into Maine with 'Bill' Sewall, to 
camp and hunt. Several times Roosevelt asked 
me to come to his room to talk about some trip I 
had taken in the woods or along the shore, in search 
of game. He would ask the most minute ques- 
tions about the cries and habits of the birds and 
animals which I had hunted. He cared far more 
for that side of the subject than I did. But when 
I had told him all I knew, I recall that he suddenly 
ceased his questions, took up a book or magazine, 
and began to read. 

"What do you think of that?" continued my 
friend. "You are trying to analyze him. Now, 
how do you explain him, there?" 

I hesitated over my reply. Then I ventured, 
"A lack of sympathy, was it?" 

My friend's hearty laugh reassured me. "No!" 
he replied. "He was just bored with me. That 
was all. He had drained me of the information 
he sought; and on other subjects I just bored him. 



MORE COLLEGE DAYS 49 

He was interested in more serious questions than 
I cared for." 

There is one incident of Roosevelt's career at 
Cambridge which has been told repeatedly, but 
often it has been told incorrectly. I have the best 
of reasons for believing that this version which I 
give is the right one. 

At his home in New York he had grown up in 
the habit of attending church and Sunday school of 
the Dutch Reformed faith. When he came to 
Cambridge there was no church of that kind within 
reach. But he had been reared in the firm belief 
that every man ought to connect himself with some 
church and in some way serve it, and, through it, 
society. As he examined the several churches near 
Harvard Square, he found himself in sympathy 
with Christ Church, Episcopalian, Reverend Mr. 
Spalding, rector. 

Accordingly, without consulting anybody, he 
presented himself before Mr. Spalding and ex- 
pressed a wish to teach a class in the Sunday school. 
I knew Mr. Spalding personally, and I think he 
was somewhat surprised at this unsolicited offer of 
service. But he concealed any surprise he felt and 
replied calmly that he would be happy to put Mr. 
Roosevelt in charge of a promising class of boys. 
This was done, and all went happily for a time. 
"Teddy" was known by his companions to be 



i 

50 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

teaching in a Sunday school, but nothing that he 
did surprised anybody who was intimate with him. 

All went well in his teaching for several months. 
The boys admired him, and he loved them. With 
his characteristic "largeness of nature", he gave 
presents at Christmas time to his pupils which 
quite surpassed the presents of other teachers to 
other boys. And a certain lowering of "morale" 
became evident in the school as this fact became 
generally known. A little reconsideration, how- 
ever, corrected this too expansive Christmasing, 
and all went on in peace. 

One Sunday, after several months had passed, 
one of the little boys — "Billy", we will say — came 
into the class, and was plainly seen to have a sus- 
piciously "black eye." His companions did not 
try very hard to ignore it; in fact, they made fre- 
quent terse inquiries about its cause. At length 
their teacher himself asked Billy directly but sym- 
pathetically about the matter. 

For a few moments Billy parried inquiries, but 
presently burst out, "Well, yer see, Sam — that big 
feller, Sam — he came along where I was playing 
marbles with Jimmie. And he swiped some of my 
marbles. And I told him to give 'em back, and — 
well, that's how I got my eye blacked." 

It was a frank statement of elemental facts and 
forces, and the young teacher saw it as such. But 



MORE COLLEGE DAYS 51 

he felt leanings in two directions. His natural 
sympathy was with the boy and his stand for his 
rights of property. But he remembered that he 
was a Sunday-school teacher. So, after a moment's 
deliberation, he said, "Of course you know, Billy, 
it's wrong to fight — that is, er — generally it is. 
And I'm sorry about this. I hope it won't happen 
again." 

This said, he slipped a twenty-five-cent piece 
into Billy's hand, and the lessons of the class were 
resumed. It is said that this award of the young 
teacher's became known to the somewhat rigid rec- 
tor, and resulted in Roosevelt's being relieved of 
his duties with the class. And for many days it 
was a standing jibe with the waggishly inclined 
among his friends for somebody to inquire of him, 
"Well, Teddy, teaching Sunday school still?" 

It is only a trifling incident, this, but it has a 
point in common with larger, later events, even 
with the Panama Canal incident. In both cases 
Roosevelt was not content with technical, conven- 
tional morality. He went below technicalities and 
got at the equity of the situation, as I will affirm, 
more minutely, in a later chapter. 

Another characteristic of Roosevelt's is implied 
in this incident. It is the exceptional way in which 
he combined in himself qualities mutually antag- 
onistic, qualities which in most people are not 



52 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

found existing together. For example, he was 
capable of the highest idealism, yet he urged re- 
course to physical force, to fist, blows, under cer- 
tain conditions. In all his writings and his ad- 
dresses, he held up the highest moral conduct as 
the only worthy aim of individuals and nations. 
And he exemplified it in his private life and in his 
public policies. Yet when he was asked what a 
man should do if — for instance — another man 
were to spit at him, or threaten him with violence, 
his prompt reply was, "Strike him and strike him 
first." 

The exceptional assemblage of opposite quali- 
ties in his character I have seen exhibited by him 
as he discussed, for instance, "Greetings and fare- 
wells among primitive people." He followed the 
subject down to its minutest details. And a lis- 
tener might have thought, "This man is meticu- 
lous. He lives in small things. He has no large 
range." And then, in an instant, I have seen him 
swing to a consideration of world-themes and treat 
them in the largest possible way. 

I was reminded of this significant quality in 
Roosevelt recently, as a classmate told me that he 
recollected a meeting at the Hasty Pudding Club, 
when Roosevelt remained, with a few others, nearly 
the entire night, in order to frustrate an attempt 
to vote in a student whom Roosevelt and others 



MORE COLLEGE DAYS 63 

considered "undesirable." There are many men — 
grim, dogged beings — of whom you would natur- 
ally expect that kind of bulldog tenacity. But how 
easy to say of Roosevelt, especially in his mer- 
curial, youthful days, "This brilliant young fellow 
is quick to lay hold but would never hold on." That 
would be a natural but mistaken judgment. He 
could think, feel, and act with remarkable speed, 
but he could also sustain his thought and feeling 
and action to the last gasp. 

The psychology of his nature probably was this. 
That after he had begun promptly, tempera- 
mentally, upon the mental, physical or emotional 
act or state, he threw it over into the domain of his 
enlightened will. And his dogged resolution, like 
a vise, held him to his chosen path. 

It pleases me to add that the classmate who told 
me this incident of the undesirable Hasty Pudding 
applicant closed his remarks with a moment's 
meditation, and then added, with tenderness and 
yet firmness, "Oh, Theodore was such a clean- 
minded fellow." 

Following this incident of the Pudding meeting, 
I may properly explain that Roosevelt was no 
"dog in the manger", glad to keep somebody out 
of what he himself was enjoying. There was the 

case of R . He was shy, inexpressive, and not 

very attractive at first sight. But he had excellent 



64 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

qualities underneath, as Roosevelt happened to 

know. Accordingly, when R came up as a 

candidate for the Pudding, and seemed likely to 
be black-balled, Roosevelt put in a very earnest 
and successful plea for him. 

No, it was not bhnd, brute, bulldog tenacity in 
Roosevelt, nor was it conceit of leadership. It was 
simply his inherent love of "the square deal." 

Frederick Mather Stone, Harvard '82, has 
given me an incident which serves my purpose 
excellently, as I try to elucidate my classmate's 
qualities and characteristics from such anecdotes 
and reminiscences as I can gather. Stone was 
"running" for the "Dickey." In the yard one day, 
as he came near Gray's, he saw Roosevelt — al- 
ready a member of the Dickey — sitting on the 
front steps. 

It might be interpolated here that when Roose- 
velt was "running" for the "Dickey", one of his 
stunts was to attend a performance of the Medea, 
then playing in Boston, and applaud all the somber 
situations in that extremely somber drama. 

Roosevelt beckoned Stone to come near; then 
he asked, with all the license of interrogation al- 
lowed him at such a time, "What's your name?" 

Stone's reply was "Rocks, by God — " then 
trailing on into some language so reprehensible 
that he would not repeat it to me. 



MORE COLLEGE DAYS 55 

Roosevelt listened to the full statement; then he 
asked, "You don't like to say that vile stuff, do 
you, Stone?" 

And Stone replied, "I certainly don't." 

At this point in the story, if Roosevelt had been 
an ordinary, average man, he would have said, 
"I'm sorry that you have to say it,'' and the inter- 
view would have ended. But, being the excep- 
tional young fellow he was, predestined by his just 
and generous nature to take up every grievance 
he came across, he exclaimed, "Then, Stone, don't 
you say that dirty stuff. Say the first three words 
when you're asked, and no more. And, Stone, if 
anybody makes a fuss, you refer him to me. I'll 
back you." 

Roosevelt always rebelled at vague ethical gen- 
eralities and the dry husks of righteousness and 
sought out and acted upon the kernel of right, 
truth, justice, — in the one particular situation 
which confronted him. In his Autobiography he 
mentions Professor A. S. Hill by name, and with 
evident gratitude and appreciation. A feeling 
which I also share, as a pupil of Professor Hill. 
But when I seek for an explanation of my class- 
mate's evident preference for that somewhat 
caustic teacher of Rhetoric and English, I am 
puzzled. 

Further, I have this incident from one of my 



56 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

classmates. He tells me, "One day, at Cambridge, 
in our Sophomore year, I met Roosevelt just out- 
side University Hall — the building where most of 
the college departments had their offices. He was 
considerably excited. When I asked the cause of 
the excitement, he burst out angrily, 'I'm going 
straight up to the President and tell him that 
Professor Hill has insulted me. He said this morn- 
ing, before the whole session, that I could never 
learn to write good English.' I tried to pacify 
him," continued my classmate, "and I think I did. 
For when I left him he did not go up into Uni- 
versity as he had intended." 

That must have been merely a passing outburst 
of youthful indignation. And, years after, as 
Roosevelt looked more calmly back over his college 
course, there seems to have been something ad- 
mirable in Professor Hill's character or methods 
which made Roosevelt single him out for especial 
mention in his Autobiography. What that quality 
in the professor was I cannot say, with confidence. 
But, knowing the two men, their temperaments and 
their attitude toward life, I fancy that Professor 
Hill's insistence upon linguistic and rhetorical 
realities, beneath the academic, cumbersome rules 
handed down from Whately and other erudite 
writers upon rhetoric, — this cutting of red tape 
appealed to reality-loving Theodore Roosevelt. 



MORE COLLEGE DAYS 57 

The story has been told that it was in the Rhet- 
oric section, during his Sophomore year, that 
Roosevelt's romantic interest in Miss Lee — later 
his wife — became generally known. William 
Draper Lewis, in his interesting "Life of Theodore 
Roosevelt", has given an account of this matter in 
some detail. "During all this time he had become 
more and more interested in Miss Alice Hathaway 
Lee, who lived in Chestnut Hill, a pleasant suburb 
of Boston. During his Sophomore year he was a 
student in Rhetoric under Professor Adams Sher- 
win Hill. One day the professor was reading to 
his class a theme, which he objected to because it 
was over-romantic. In the middle of his reading, 
he paused and asked Roosevelt to criticize the 
theme. The young man hesitated, and the profes- 
sor then asked him specifically, 'Mr. Roosevelt, 
what do you think of a young man falling in love ?' 
Roosevelt, blushing furiously, made no answer. 
And so his secret was out. The culmination of the 
affair was his engagement to Miss Lee, and their 
marriage, on his twenty-second birthday, a few 
months after he had graduated from college." 

I have visited Cambridge recently to refresh my 
memory upon Roosevelt's college life. There is 
the old wooden dwelling-house on Winthrop 
Street, where he lived during practically all his 
four years. And there is the well-preserved, dig- 



58 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

nified house at Number 62 Brattle Street (corner 
of Hilliard) where his dining club met. Also I 
noted the substantial iron fence, with its impressive 
gates, which now surrounds the college grounds. 
And I give a letter from one of my classmates 
which tells how that encompassing fence came to 
be erected: 

"I served with Roosevelt and John Woodbury 
(our faithful class secretary) on the Class Day 
Committee. And I recall that Roosevelt suggested 
that the Committee should use a material portion 
of the class fund to construct a picket fence around 
the grounds, to protect the Class Day ceremonies 
from invasion by the uninvited public. Class Day, 
'79, the previous year, had been spoiled by an in- 
cursion of a mob, and it was our wish to prevent a 
recurrence of such an incident. Roosevelt sug- 
gested the fence. But before we committed our- 
selves to so large an expenditure, we secured an 
assurance from '81 that they would take it off our 
hands — as a 'second-hand' fence, of course, at a 
reduced price. I have always understood that this 
arrangement was carried out. That picket fence 
was the origin of the dignified iron structure, a 
splendid gift of '81, which now encompasses the 
yard; and I think that these facts are worthy of 
record in a biography of Roosevelt." 

It might seem, from the space given to the social 



MORE COLLEGE DAYS 59 

side of Roosevelt's life in college, that his work in 
his courses of study was of little moment. His own 
autobiographical survey of his four years as an 
undergraduate might also lead the casual reader to 
the same conclusion. But Roosevelt, in his Auto- 
biography, is too modest about his academic 
achievements. I have already adverted to them, 
but not in sufficient detail. 

Bearing in mind the number of clubs and so- 
cieties of which he was a member, and the time he 
gave to athletics, the hasty critic might expect to 
find that not much time and interest remained for 
study. But here again we find him combining in 
himself unrelated and almost mutually opposing 
qualities and aptitudes which in most people are 
widely separated from each other. Roosevelt loved 
his sparring and boxing and driving and shooting 
and all active outdoor sports, but he could put his 
feet under a desk and "toil terribly." He could 
withdraw his trained and harnessed will from all 
physical action and put it into intellectual fields, 
for sustained effort of many kinds, and with ex- 
cellent results. 

I will use, in closing this chapter, some of the 
material gathered by my classmate, F. J. Ranlett, 
and printed in an article by him in the Harvard 
Graduates' Magazine of June, 1907. 

In his article, among many useful facts, he has 



60 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 



prepared the table which shows how Roosevelt used 
the privileges of the new elective system : 



Hours Taken in 
Sophomore Year 



Hours Taken in 
Junior Year 



3 hours a week 

German 
1 hour in French 



1 hour a week in Ger- 
man 
3 hours in Italian 

Natural 



6 hours in Natural 5 hours in 
History History 

3 hours in Political 
Economy 



Hours Taken in 
Senior Year 



3 hours in Italian 

6 hours in Natural 

History 
3 hours in Political 

Economy 



Mr. Ranlett points out that one third of Roose- 
velt's elected courses were in modern languages, no 
Latin or Greek. Also, that the table contains no 
courses in English Composition and none in His- 
tory, "An omission very noticeable in a man who, 
in after life, wrote so much and so well, on so many 
subjects — even in historical fields. 

"In Sophomore History, and in the other pre- 
scribed coursed — Rhetoric, Logic, and Meta- 
physics — Roosevelt took high stand. And in all 
his electives (save perhaps a one-hour course in 
French), he is found upon the rank-list. In Phil- 
osophy VI (Political Economy) he led the class. 
In all his Natural History courses his rank was so 
high that Final Honors would have been easy for 
him. But he cared not enough for this outward 
distinction to try for it." 

The table given by my classmate Ranlett is 



MORE COLLEGE DAYS 61 

provocative of surmise and conjecture, in the light 
of Roosevelt's later career. It will be interpreted 
in various ways by various people. He entered 
college poorly equipped in Latin and Greek and 
well equipped in mathematics. He elected Nat- 
ural History at the earliest opportunity and held 
to it throughout his three elective years. He gave 
no attention to electives in Philosophy, History, 
the Fine Arts, and Music. He gave considerable 
attention to Pohtical Economy. This last field lay 
close to what proved to be his life work. 

In our time at Harvard — as at the present time 
■ — the custom prevailed of having the group photo- 
graph of the entire class taken at graduation. And 
often, as I have glanced over that picture, at that 
group of hopeful young men, I have noted with a 
certain satisfaction, with a sentiment indeed not 
wholly rational, that my face comes next to his, be- 
side him. And that accidental collocation I like to 
take "as an outward and visible sign", — and the 
rest of it. All his public life I was close to him in 
spirit, in sympathy, in eager support. "Beside 
him", with him, whole-heartedly so, yielding place 
to no man in my admiration and devotion. 



CHAPTER V 

A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 

In October, 1880, Roosevelt was united in mar- 
riage to ]Miss Alice Hathaway Lee, of Brookline, 
Massachusetts. She was a lovely and charming 
girl, and Roosevelt gave to her that romantic pas- 
sion which would have been expected from a man 
of his ardent idealistic nature. 

Soon after their marriage, the two went on a 
trip over Europe. In Switzerland he made the 
ascent of the Matterhorn. One of my classmates 
writes me, "I met Roosevelt at Zermatt, and his 
wife asked me to remonstrate with him about climb- 
ing the Matterhorn. At this time he had had no 
experience in mountain climbing. I did urge him 
not to attempt the ascent. But his only reply was, 
'I shall climb the mountain.' And he did it, with 
success." 

The mountain climbing was not quite what the 
physician, who had given him a careful physical 
examination as he was ending his Senior year, 
would have prescribed for him. Said that physi- 
cian to him, "You have some trouble with your 



A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 63 

heart. You must choose a profession which will 
not demand of you violent exertion." Roosevelt 
listened to him — and a few months later was toil- 
ing up the Matterhorn. But he was right and the 
physician was wrong, or at least was overcautious. 
It is well to note that. 

A biographer or a historian is tempted to build 
his narrative in periods, as a nautilus builds its shell, 
in sections, perhaps condensing and crowding too 
much into one part and subordinating or ignoring 
some other part. But a biography or a history is 
like a vine, — enlarging or shrinking, but always 
continuous. 

Yet the years 1881 to 1884 do comprise such 
radical experiences in my classmate's life that I 
look upon them as forming a rounded and quite 
crucial period, which more shaped his future than 
did any other three years of his life. 

On his return from Europe with his wife, they 
took up their abode in New York City. And three 
possible vocations invited him. His old-time pre- 
dilection for natural history was now laid aside. 
He was already well along in his writing of his 
"History of the Naval War of 1812"; that work 
unquestionably had direct bearing upon his official 
duties at Washington later in life. There was 
now the attractive possibility of his giving his 
whole attention to historical or biographical work. 



64 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Again, there was the field of political life, with re- 
form aims, as he had intimated to friends in col- 
lege. And last but nearest lay the law office of 
his uncle, with a cordial welcome. 

This office he now entered and began the study 
of law. But he did not long continue it. Like 
James Russell Lowell in a similar situation, he 
found the ends sought and the means used distaste- 
ful to him. In Lowell's case there was little except 
a general lack of interest in the subject. But in 
Roosevelt there recurred the same extreme ethical 
sensitiveness which had led him to protest at Har- 
vard, in his theme and forensic courses, against 
taking either side of a question, irrespective of his 
personal convictions. He tells us in his Autobiog- 
raphy that if he had come under the broad influence 
of Professor Thayer, of the Harvard Law School, 
he might have looked at the matter differently. 
But as he faced the profession of the law in his 
uncle's office, it revolted his intense love of truth 
and sincerity. And he would have none of it. 

Although in later life he modified his extreme 
antipathy to legal methods, I believe that he 
never quite lost it. He was almost fanatical on 
questions of morals. And although he afterward 
numbered dear friends among members of the 
legal profession, I think he never quite acquiesced 
in the legal doctrinaire convention that every ac- 



A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 65 

cused person has a right to the best possible pres- 
entation of his case. 

This subconscious bias I believe was a factor in 
his later advocacy of the recall of judicial decisions. 
Not only did he hold to the will and sovereignty 
of the People, as the foundation of our democracy, 
but he never lost his ethical distrust of the infalli- 
bility of a group of men trained in the legal schools. 
Apropos of his "recall of judicial decisions" — ad- 
vocated by him at Columbus, Ohio, in 1912 — I 
wrote him him a letter in which I pointed out that 
although the people were the ultimate power, they 
were often hasty and fitful, as a whole, and should 
be checked in any sudden outburst of feeling, — in 
short, should be "protected from themselves." In 
reply came this letter, dated April 9, 1912: 

My dear Oilman — 

I thank you for your letter and I appreciate it. 
I agree with you that the voters should be "pro- 
tected from themselves," but that means only that 
they should be protected to the extent of giving 
themselves full time to form a deliberate judgment. 
My proposal gives them a minimum time of two 
years. Surely that is enough. 

With many thanks, 

Sincerely yours, 

T. Roosevelt. 

This letter brings out a breadth as well as pene- 
tration of view which, at the time of the "recall" 



6Q ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

incident, was generally overlooked. More than 
that, I believe that Roosevelt's action in this mat- 
ter, his daring to raise even the slightest shade of 
doubt regarding the infallibility of our courts, 
brought upon him that opposition of the legal fra- 
ternity which continued throughout his life. Judges 
and lawyers, like the members of any class or pro- 
fession, resent criticism from a layman. 

Another recrudescence of this deep-down and 
perhaps morbid antagonism toward legal proced- 
ure came out in his address before Harvard grad- 
uates, in Memorial Hall, on Commencement Day, 
1905. The hall was full to overflowing. The Hon- 
orable Joseph H. Choate presided. Many of the 
nation's most eminent citizens were present, and 
a large proportion of them were lawyers. At a 
certain points in his address — which he had written 
out and was reading, as he often did on important 
occasions, where he was fearful about saying ex- 
cited and regrettable things — he uttered these 
words: "Is it not lamentable that so large a num- 
ber of our ablest young men, having finished their 
undergraduate course, go on through the law 
schools and thence into the world, there to steer 
individuals and corporations as near the edge of 
illegality as they can go without allowing them to 
get over the edge?" 

This was uttered in the hearing of hundreds of 



A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 67 

eminent members of the American Bar. Up to 
this point in his address applause had been fre- 
quent and unreserved^. But on the instant a silence 
fell on that august assembly, and lips compressed 
and faces frowned. The speaker felt at once the 
opposition aroused. But it did not frighten him. 
On the contrary, it roused his superb combative 
spirit. He paused, looked out over the hall, smiled 
his unique dental smile, and remarked, "The ap- 
plause seems somewhat lukewarm at this point. I 
will repeat what I said." And repeat it he did, 
with additional vigor. And that great assemblage, 
won by his intrepidity — though perhaps uncon- 
vinced as to the soundness of his position — broke 
into thunders of applause. 

The essential aim of this volume being an inter- 
pretation of the character and greatness of my 
classmate, the interesting point in his career, to 
my thinking, in the period of 1881-1884, is that 
during it he underwent, socially, that change of 
heart, of perception, of conviction, which my old- 
time Professor, Doctor William James, termed in 
the religious field being "twice-born." 

Doctor James expounded this view fully in his 
book, "Varieties of Religious Experience." He 
maintained that most people possessed a certain 
moderate measure of religious conviction and senti- 
ment by their bii-th and early training, almost by 



68 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

absorption. But a certain number of these people, 
somewhere in their careers, passed through some 
kind of special experience, or conversion, which in- 
tensified their previous experience and gave to 
them quite new rehgious convictions and senti- 
ments. These people were the "twice-born", said 
Doctor James, "in the field of religion." Similarly, 
but in the social field, Theodore Roosevelt became 
"twice-born" during these years 1881-1884. As a 
child, he had been born into and trained in one class 
of society — the "Best", so called — but one class 
only of our nation. He was in that degree provin- 
cial, limited, as essentially and surely as was 
the humblest citizen dwelling in the purlieus of a 
congested city. But his life during those eventful 
years named — his intense passion for his beloved 
wife, his continuous close contact with stern, bare, 
human realities in political life through three years, 
his profound grief at the death of his wife and 
his mother (the two occurring in February, 1884) 
— these experiences made of him, observant, sensi- 
tive nature that he was, a "twice-born" man. From 
the refined yet provincial social life of his childhood 
and youth he developed and became truly demo- 
cratic, truly cosmopolitan. This "postgraduate" 
education of his was continued in the next period, 
■ — the ranch or "cowboy" period. But it was ac- 



A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 69 

complished, essentially, during the three years 
named. 

This larger life he referred to once, in an inti- 
mate group where I was present, in this way: "I 
tell you, fellows, we must get into touch with all 
kinds of people. We must he able to see life from 
other viewpoints than the one to which we were 
born." Then he paused and added, "But we must 
keep, through it all, our own inner standards." And 
he did this. I know of no more dramatic yet now 
amusing scenes in his life than those situations 
where he had started upon a political canvas, in 
New York City, under the guidance of friendly 
yet anxious "Joe" INIurray, and was taken to in- 
terview the gi'og-shop bosses of Sixth Avenue. 
Much as he desired their approval and support, he 
would not cringe, he would not relax those "inner 
standards" which he had set for himself. Not only 
did he tell a frowning saloonkeeper that instead of 
getting lower taxes for liquor sellers, he would 
try to have the taxes increased, but he maintained 
his standards of dress and speech in situations 
where most men would have tried to conform to 
the manners and customs about them. Those were 
essentially opera-bouffe scenes — that well-bred, 
refined young fellow from Fifth Avenue holding 
himself ever a gentleman, as he sought the votes of 
Sixth Avenue habitues. Similar situations were 



70 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

met by him later in a similar, sincere, courageous 
way, when he fraternized with ranchmen and cow- 
boys in the West. 

With the assistance of "Joe" Murray, "Jake" 
Hess, and other perspicacious friends, Roosevelt 
gained the approval of men who had never before 
met a man like him. They saw and responded to 
his genuineness as he did to theirs. And the "Mor- 
ton Hall crowd" sent him to the Assembly, at Al- 
bany, where he maintained his moral, social, lin- 
guistic, and sartorial standards, yet gathered grad- 
ually about him men of antipodal manners and 
customs, fighting always for reform — "playing the 
honesty game", as his corrupt fellov/ legislators 
dully and anxiously expressed it. 

"Keep in touch with all kinds of people, get their 
viewpoint, but maintain your own inner stand- 
ards," urged my classmate, in my hearing. And 
he exemplified this dictum at the Progressive Con- 
vention in Chicago. In the hot, sultry atmosphere 
of the hall, nearly every man had put off his coat 
and even his waistcoat, Roosevelt among the num- 
ber. When the deciding vote was cast and he was 
declared the nominee of the convention, he must 
needs go up to the ^^ostrum to accept, formally and 
solemnly, the honor accorded him. At once he 
began putting on his coat. Friends near him ad- 
vised, "Go along just as you are, Roosevelt! Don't 



A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 71 

bother about the coat!" But with a nicety of feel- 
ing which delights me as I recall it, he made no 
reply but insisted upon putting on the coat. And 
thus properly clad, he ascended the platform and 
accepted the nomination. 

This insistence on the second half of his dictum — 
the inner standards — is not the half which most in- 
terests me as I study his crucial three years, 1881- 
1884. Rather it is the half about "getting the view- 
point of all kinds of people." Therein lay his "sec- 
ond birth." Even as the politicians about him were 
taking his measure, he was taking theirs. Step by 
step he gained knowledge of their motives, out- 
wardly so different from his own, yet singularly 
alike in many respects. Consciously or uncon- 
sciously he was following the method of Robert 
Louis Stevenson — "Friendship without capitula- 
tion." He was looking — not for differences, but 
for resemblances, for points held by him in common 
with the bosses and "heelers", and keenly enjoying 
them. 

Gazing back through the years over that period 
of Roosevelt's "conversion", its strongest dramatic 
scene, its "high light", is the one at Albany where 
he denounced the corrupt judge, member of the 
highest court in the State. Like an intrepid young 
paladin of righteousness, this ideahstic striphng at- 
tacked not only the august judicial luminary him- 



72 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

self, but the whole bodyguard of Purse, Privilege, 
and Power by which he was upheld. 

The young college graduate apparently did not 
differ much from hundreds of other young aca- 
demic idealists, as he entered the arena; but only 
the Roosevelt concentration, tenacity, and fear- 
lessness enabled him to fight to a finish a battle 
where he defied precedent, alienated friends, and — 
as he once said to me — "took his very life in his 
hands." 

His public life, his political future, of course he 
meant. And the "old family friend", a more ex- 
perienced man, thought the same — that one who 
held an interview with him, praised him and pres- 
ently bestowed upon him the eminently worldly 
advice, "Don't go too far, Theodore. You've made 
a real impression. Now let the matter drop. You'll 
be put down and out if you go on any longer 
against those big men." But Roosevelt was never 
a quitter and he fought the battle through, ob- 
tained the investigation committees which he had 
sought, and although they returned a "whitewash- 
ing" report, the public was convinced that his 
charges had been sound. 

Mr. Thayer, speaking of Roosevelt's keen, re- 
lentless cross-examination of the opposing counsel, 
says in his volume: "Even in those days, Roose- 
velt, when in deadly earnest, had a way of fixing 



A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 73 

his under jaw and pointing a forefinger which 
menaced Hke a seven-shooter." That vivid descrip- 
tion appeals to me because years afterward I saw 
a somewhat similar situation, where for a moment 
my distinguished classmate — then President of the 
United States — must have looked much as he did 
in that Assembly Hall at Albany. It was at a 
class dinner. A hundred and more men were pres- 
ent, and Roosevelt had been asked to do all the 
after-dinner speaking. He did it admirably, tell- 
ing us in confidence inside facts about several of 
his "policies." At one point a member of the 
class, presuming upon the speaker's friendliness, 
interrupted with an irrelevant question. Roosevelt 
gave a concise reply, then continued. A second 
time did that incautious person interject a remark. 
And a second time did Roosevelt reply, but with 
significant brevity. Then he resumed his talk. A 
third time that infatuated man arose and offered a 
suggestion. And I can never forget the tone, look, 
and gesture with which Roosevelt, annoyed beyond 
endurance, rephed to him. His jaw was set, his 
blue eyes flashed, his arm and forefinger were 
leveled like a gun barrel, and his voice crackled 
like a machine gun: "When-I'm-through-you-can- 
talk." 

We all had felt chills of apprehension at the in- 
terruptions, and all had lamented our inter jectory 



74 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

classmate's folly. But his collapse, upon receiving 
that rapid-fire volley, made us sorry for him, even 
as we realized that he deserved it. 

I am struck, as I read about Roosevelt's Albany 
experiences, with the way in which he blended the 
ideahstic, the academic, if you will, with a prac- 
tical attention to the prosaic and athletic demands 
of any situation. When he took that leg of the 
broken chair into the arena-like committee room, he 
showed that he grasped the elemental, brute-force 
possibilities of the time and place. He had sized up 
the quality of the "Black Horse Cavalry." He 
may have recalled that dastardly recourse to brute 
force in the United States Senate, when Preston 
Brooks struck down unarmed Charles Sumner. 

At any rate, physical violence was not attempted 
by his enemies — not at that time and place. But 
at the Delevan House entrance, later, lurked 
"Stubby" Collins — hireling of the corrupt legisla- 
tive ring — and planned to knock Roosevelt down. 
But the alert young reformer got in his lightning 
blow first. With that skillful arm and small but 
well-hardened fist he stretched the rufiian upon the 
floor and passed on. 

The really essential and lasting interest which 
this period of 1881-1884 has for me is not the 
iniquitous ring, nor the "unjust judge", nor the re- 
volting dwelling-house sweatshops, but the unfold- 



A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 75 

ing of Theodore Roosevelt's character. In the light 
of his subsequent national leadership, this was the 
important factor. And again I affirm that he was 
more truly a self-made man than any character — 
not excepting even that Abraham Lincoln whom he 
so admired — in American history. As he passed 
through the years, he laid them under tribute. He 
impressed himself nobly upon them, but he gathered 
from them. He had been born to "privilege", but 
he constantly added to the number of his contacts 
with the great, real world ; and he retained through 
all, not only his Sir Galahad ideahsm, but that 
phenomenal will, that power of concentration upon 
any given point of his expanding horizon, which 
made him unique in our national annals. 



CHAPTER VI 

"in cowboy land" 

"In cowboy land" is the title of the chapter in 
Roosevelt's Autobiography in which he describes 
his experiences on the Little Missouri River, Da- 
kota. The influences which led him to go out 
into that frontier hfe are quite evident. He had 
always loved camping and hunting, and while in 
college had made trips into the Maine forests. His 
brother Elliot had written him from Texas about 
the fascinations of the free, wild life of the border. 
And now were added two forces which quite turned 
him from the high-pressure Hfe of New York and 
the complexity and corruptness of political life. 

One of these forces was his discovery and dis- 
appointment that he had come to the end of what 
he, alone, as an individual, could accomplish in re- 
form work. He had done wonders at Albany by 
his personal might. He had yet to learn — as he 
afterward saw and said — that teamwork only, with 
that concession of individual preferences which 
goes with it, could carry to permanent success the 
kind of reform work upon which he had started. 



"IN COWBOY LAND" 77 

Without self-excuse he stated the case to his 
trusted friend, Jacob Riis, years afterward. "I 
suppose that my head was swelled. I let my in- 
dividual judgment and conscience decide every- 
thing. So I soon found myself alone. There were 
other honest, excellent people, only we differed in 
certain matters. I know now that if you want to 
get things done you must pull together as far as is 
possible." 

Another influence which decided his conduct at 
this point was the sorrow which overwhelmed him 
at the death of his wife and his mother. And, quite 
as we might expect, he desired to go away from 
those scenes which constanJ:ly reminded him of his 
loss and loneliness and to seek solace from the 
soothing hand of Nature. There had always been 
for him a "call of the wild", and now that call was 
one of help and healing. 

A minor cause for his going to Dakota at this 
time, yet one not to be ignored, was that his old- 
time foe, asthma, threatened him afresh. His 
physical strength had been impaired by his pro- 
found grief, and he knew that the sure remedy was 
such an open life as a western ranch offered. So 
behold him, in the picturesque garb of a cowboy 
of an extreme type, settled upon his newly acquired 
property on the Little ^lissouri and throwing his 



78 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

whole being into the manners and customs of that 
border life. 

His own description of his surroundings reads 
thus : "My house was a long, low building of hewn 
logs, which I helped to build myself. It had a 
broad veranda and rocking-chairs and a big fire- 
place and elk-skins and wolf-skins scattered about. 
It was on the brink of the Little Missouri, right in 
a clump of cottonwoods. I have shot deer from my 
veranda. I kept my books near me and did a deal 
of writing, being, the rest of the time, out all day 
in all kinds of weather." 

In the building of this house Roosevelt assisted 
his two old-time friends of the Maine woods, Sewall 
and Dow. About his own skill with an ax he was 
perfectly frank, as about all other matters, when he 
spoke calmly and reflectively: "I could chop fairly 
well for an amateur, but I could not do one third 
the work they could do." And he was vastly 
amused when he overheard somebody ask Dow 
about his efficiency and this reply was given: "Well, 
Bill cut down fifty- three, I cut down forty-nine, 
and the boss — well, he beavered down seventeen." 

But the saddened, lonely young man was not 
much concerned with the outer results of his exer- 
tions. The inner, subjective results were what he 
aimed at, and this vigorous output of muscular 
force was the very corrective which he sought for 



«IN COWBOY LAND" 79 

his grief. The broad wild spaces, of which he has 
written with warmth and poetic feeHng, were lay- 
ing their charm upon him; and always he had 
dearly loved action and effort of the most strenu- 
ous kind. Rowing a boat he had found more en- 
joyable in boyhood than sailing. And now, in his 
ranch life, he shared all the hardest, roughest work 
of his companions. 

This has a bearing on any analysis of Roosevelt's 
character. There are two general classes or fields of 
human pleasures — those where a man sits passive 
and receives, and those where he puts himself into 
vigorous action. The pleasure which comes from 
the arts — to the listener in the musical world, and 
to the spectator in the plastic and the pictorial fields 
— never held an important place in Roosevelt's life. 
His father had played the piano for his children 
and evinced a moderate taste for music; but my 
classmate never possessed much keen interest in it. 
At college he had been a member of the Glee 
Club, but only an associate member. 

Then, although his rare, intelligent activity made 
him conversant with the conventional discrimina- 
tions concerning pictures and statues, I believe that 
he never got much joy from these things. It is 
said that he held a high opinion of Remington, the 
vivid, vigorous painter of men and animals of the 
Western plains. But this opinion must have rested 



80 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

chiefly upon Roosevelt's special knowledge and 
happy associations with that virile frontier life. 

Roosevelt's duties and pleasures, during the 
period of his ranch life, took him far and wide over 
the surrounding country. And he bore his share of 
the tasks and hardships so willingly and with such 
persistent endurance that he soon made friends 
everywhere among the cowboys, even among those 
who had looked with distrust and contempt at this 
bespectacled "dude" from the East. 

Roosevelt had very little lasting difficulty with 
the better class of cowboys. They held their ele- 
mental moral virtues, as did he, and the two types 
soon recognized and approved each other. But 
there were many "bad men" scattered over the 
new country, and with one or another of these he 
came into colHsion. One evening the young East- 
erner entered a "hotel", fatigued after a hard day's 
riding. The barroom was the living room of the 
resort, and it was well filled with cowboys and 
cattlemen. He took a seat in a corner, out of the 
way. But a local bully, the worse for drink, caught 
sight of his unusual face and figure and made ad- 
vances. Roosevelt's account of the scene is vivid 
and very readable. "As soon as he saw me he 
hailed me as 'Four Eyes' and said I was going to 
treat. I joined in the laughter but made no re- 



"IN COWBOY LAND" 81 

sponse. He then came over near me and with a 
gun in each hand used foul language." 

Here comes to the rescue — as several times in 
Roosevelt's life — his experience in boxing. "He 
was foolish to stand so near and foolish to stand 
v/ith his heels together, in a very unstable position. 
He ordered me to get up and treat. 

"I rose slowly, remarking, 'Well, if I've got to, 
I've got to.' Then, looking past him casually, I 
suddenly struck, quick and hard, with my right on 
his jaw, then with my left, and again with my 
right. Down he went, his head hit the corner of 
the bar, and he lay senseless. Whereupon the 
crowd approved heartily my action, disarmed him, 
hustled him out, and put him in a shed." 

Only a trained boxer would have noted the "heels 
too close together." And the "first the right, then 
the left, and again the right" was the ripe fruit of 
those athletic days in "the Gym" at Cambridge. 

Thus he lived through the robust experiences of 
his ranch life. He was an exotic in this land of 
elemental force, yet there was such a wide reach 
in his nature that he took the vigorous, rigorous ex- 
periences as if born to them. And throughout 
them all, underneath the outer, exacting routine of 
the day, he carried on an interior life of which his 
hardy companions knew little. He wrote and read 
much, somewhat to their perplexity. If he had 



82 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

done nothing but hold a book and a pen he would 
have stood contemned in their eyes. But he shared 
the zest and strain of the hunt and the round-up 
with them so joyously and efficiently that he com- 
manded their respect. And his frank, warm nature 
won their affection. 

And who of that group on the Little Missouri 
saw and consciously felt the appeal of wild rugged 
Nature as did this "exotic" from the "effete East!" 
In his "Wilderness Hunter" he writes sentences of 
description which are as rich in color and as tense 
in feeling as ever fervid John Ruskin wrote about 
pictures. "The visitor to these scenes shall carry 
forever in his mind the meaning of endless prairies 
shimmering in the bright sunlight; of vast snow- 
clad wastes, lying desolate under gray skies ; of the 
melancholy marshes ; of the rush of mighty rivers ; 
of the breath of the evergreen forest in summer; 
of the crooning of ice-armored pines at the touch of 
the winds of winter; of cataracts roaring between 
hoary mountain passes; of all the innumerable 
sights and sounds of the wilderness, and of the 
silences that brood in its still depths." 

That sounds like John IMuir at his best. And 
what passages can you point out in Homer of 
keener, closer feeling for Nature than that? 

The life of the ranch, by its contrast with the life 
of New York and Albany, and especially by its 



«IN COWBOY LAND" 83 

subjective remoteness from his grief and loss ac- 
complished what he had desperately hoped it would 
accomplish. It diverted his brooding memories, it 
summoned him from his sorrowful reflections to 
action, observation, and physical achievement. Like 
AntfEus of old, the touch of Mother Earth renewed 
his strength and vital forces. Thus his elastic 
nature gradually regained something of its normal 
poise. 

Yet there were times when sad memories of his 
happy past clouded his sky. Faithful Bill Sewall 
says, "He was melancholy at times. And, the first 
year on the ranch, much down in spirits. He told 
me, one day, that he felt as if it did not make any 
diiFerence what became of him — he had nothing to 
live for." Those men were very different indeed 
from each other in temperament and training; but 
the human bond was strong between them. We 
smile indulgently as Sewall writes, "We were very 
close together, in those days, and he talked over 
about everything with me. His ideas and mine al- 
ways seemed to run about the same." 

Yet the days were not all clouded. The robust 
young exile from Manhattan varied in his moods. 
Real Hfe thrilled him always, and laughter was not 
wholly estranged from him. We do not think of 
Roosevelt as a humorous writer, yet he wrote with 
piquant abandon when he described that experience 



84 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

in the crowded "hotel" of a little "cow town" of 
the prairie. He stopped his horse and was shown 
to his room. It contained two beds. In one were 
two men, fast asleep. In the other a man also 
asleep. His name was Bill Jones. The narrative 
continued, "I turned in and I slept. A couple of 
hours later I was awakened by the door being 
thrown open and a lantern flashed in my face, the 
lantern gleaming on the muzzle of a cocked .45. 
Another man said to the lantern-bearer, 'It ain't 
him.' The next moment my bedfellow was covered 
by two guns and addressed, 'Now, Bill, don't make 
a fuss, but come along quiet!' 'I'm not thinking 
of making a fuss,' said Bill. And Bill pulled on 
his trousers and boots and went out with them. Up 
to this time there had been not a sound from the 
other bed. Now one of its two occupants lighted 
a candle and gazed around in silence. At this 
point I committed the breach of etiquette of ask- 
ing questions. 'I wonder why they took Bill,' I 
said. No answer, and I repeated, 'I wonder why 
they took Bill?' 'Well,' said the man with the 
candle, 'I reckon they wanted him.' And with that 
he blew out the candle and conversation ceased. 
Later I learned that Bill, in a fit of playfulness, had 
held up the Northern Pacific train at a station by 
shooting at the feet of the conductor to make him 
dance. This was purely a joke on Bill's part; but 



«IN COWBOY LAND" 85 

the Northern Pacific people possessed a less 
robust sense of humor, and a United States Mar- 
shal was sent to arrest Bill for delaying the mails." 

This picturesque period of Roosevelt's life was 
much drawn upon, through several successive years, 
by the cartoonists of the press and magazines. And 
he was represented humorously in all the real and 
fancied positions incidental to life on a cattle ranch. 
But in that actual experience, while he appreciated 
the comic elements, he was aware that he was dwell- 
ing amid elemental and savage forces where a 
mistake might bring him to his death or into hope- 
less disgrace. 

Take that incident — in two parts — which his 
friend Bill Sewall recounts with artless brevity. It 
reads hke a tale from Plutarch. "While Roose- 
velt was away on this hunting trip, we heard that a 
bad man on a nearby ranch had said he would shoot 
Roosevelt at sight. I told Theodore about it, when 
he came back. He said, 'Is that so?' Then he 
rode straight over to the shack where the man lived 
and told him he had heard that a man intended to 
shoot him. 'And,' said Theodore, 'I want to know 
why.' The man was flabbergasted and denied that 
he had ever said anything of the sort. He said he 
had been misquoted. The affair passed off pleas- 
antly, and he and Roosevelt were good friends 
after that." 



86 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

That is the first half of the story. Here is the 
second. That same "bad man" hved on the ranch 
of a Marquis de Mores. And the Marquis, irri- 
tated by some fancied shght, sent Roosevelt a letter 
which hinted at a challenge to a duel. "The chal- 
lenge did not actually come," explains Sewall, "but 
Roosevelt expected it. And he said that although 
he did not believe in duelling, he would accept it if 
it came; he would not be bullied. As the person 
challenged, he said, he had the right to choose 
the weapons. And he would choose Winchester 
rifles, at a distance of twelve paces. 'I'm not a very 
good shot,' he said, 'and I want to be near enough to 
hit.' The two principals were to 'shoot and keep 
on advancing — until one or the other was satis- 
fied.' " 

It would seem that with Winchesters, at twelve 
paces, "satisfaction" would soon be reached. 

Always Roosevelt had believed in "the square 
deal", long before he had so formulated the idea, 
even back in the days of his Sunday-school class 
when he had rewarded the small boy who had re- 
sented the stealing of his marbles. And now, at 
Medora, when three lawless tramps stole his boat 
on the river, promptly and tirelessly he set about 
retribution and recovery. Although his fellow 
ranchmen advised him not to undertake a well-nigh 
hopeless chase, he persisted. With two other men 



"IN COWBOY LAND" 87 

he went down the river a hundred and fifty miles, 
dangerous in places; and after three days of swift 
pursuit he overtook the thieves, recovered his prop- 
erty, and brought back the men to serve a term in 
jail. 

There was always a tenacity of purpose in Roose- 
velt which surprised observers who saw for the first 
time his brilliancy and alertness. He had an unsus- 
pected capacity for "following through", as the 
golf phrase is. He combined the quick, eager snap 
of the terrier with the hold-on grip of the bulldog. 

When Roosevelt was in Paris many years after- 
ward, he made an address before the Sorbonne. 
And with a shrewd sense of what would be novel 
and picturesque to his listeners, he gave this bit of 
reminiscence of his ranch life. "In the cattle coun- 
try a 'maverick' was an unbranded yearling. The 
custom was for mavericks to be branded with the 
brand of the man on whose range they were found. 
I had recently hired a new cowboy and we were 
out looking up our cattle. We found a maverick, 
roped it, thrcAV it, and my new cowboy started to 
brand it. Then I noticed that he was putting on 
my brand; and I said, 'That animal should not 

have my brand ; we are on J 's range. The 

man replied, 'I know my business. I always put 
on my boss's brand.' I replied, 'Is that so? Well, 
you stop that and go back to our ranch-house and 



88 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

get your pay up to now. I don't need you any 
longer.' The man was astonished, and exclaimed, 
'Why, what's the matter? I'm putting on your 
brand.' At that I answered, 'Yes, my friend, and 
if you would steal for me, you would steal froin 
me.' " 

That was not idealism in ethics; but it prob- 
ably appealed to the elemental nature of the man 
with convincing force. Roosevelt knew his man. 
He was remarkably quick at getting the unwritten 
standards of the new country clearly into his mind. 

One would scarcely think of him as needing to 
learn tact, in this raw and apparently unconven- 
tional life of the cattle ranges, but he recognized 
that need and learned his lesson. He found that 
among cowboys and "wranglers" and ranchers 
there were social conventions, although these dif- 
fered somewhat from the code of Fifth Avenue, 
New York. He says, in his "Autobiography", "My 
experience was that if a new man did not talk until 
his associates knew him and liked him, and if he did 
his work, he would get on. . . . When I went 
among strangers I always had to spend twenty- 
four hours in living down the fact that I wore spec- 
tacles, remaining judiciously deaf to any side re- 
marks about 'Four Eyes' and the like. ... I made 
use of that diplomacy, among new men, which con- 



«IN COWBOY LAND" 89 

sisted in not uttering one word that could be 
avoided." 

Not very easy, that, for a young man of Roose- 
velt's free, facile tongue and eager expression. As 
a student at Harvard he was not noted for his tact, 
quite as we v/ould expect from a young fellow of 
his sincere, enthusiastic nature. I like him the 
better for that. A college student who is con- 
spicuously tactful at the age of — say, twenty, is 
tactful probably because he lacks the warm im- 
pulses which characterize normal youth, or he has 
been overtrained already. 

One of the most delightful revelations of Roose- 
velt's tact and humor blended is given in the words 
of Sewall. "Theodore was out riding one day and 
stopped for luncheon at the house of a woman who 
was a good deal of a character. She was living 
with the man who had shot her husband. Theodore 
sat down in a comer to read a book. He always 
carried one with him. His legs were stretched out, 
and the woman, getting his dinner, stumbled over 
them. Then she exclaimed that he'd better move 
his damned feet. He complied, and remarked that 
he thought it was a perfectly proper thing for a 
lady to ask a gentleman to move, but that he had 
never happened to hear it put that way before." 

In his mature life, Roosevelt evinced a reason- 
able amount of tact, but it was an acquired taste. 



90 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

What he did have naturally was that kernel of 
which tact is the outer husk, namely, sympathy. 
Walt Whitman said the truest word that I have 
ever heard about sympathy. Recalling his serv- 
ice in the hospital during the Civil War, he said, "I 
did not pity the wounded soldier, I became the 
wounded soldier." And by that high standard 
Theodore Roosevelt was sympathetic. That was 
why he was loved, in his time, as no other man in 
the United States ever was loved. That was the 
significant, subtle explanation of the humorous 
story, often told, regarding the "Cow-Puncher 
Rough Rider's" explanation of the way in which 
he had shot a man. "Why, Colonel, I had a diffi- 
culty with a gentleman, and — er — well, I killed 
the gentleman." "But how did it happen? How 
did you do it?" The ex-puncher mistook the mean- 
ing of the question and replied, "With a .38 on a .45 
frame. Colonel." So intimately had Roosevelt 
shared that turbulent border life, so sympatheti- 
cally had he entered into and maintained the stan- 
dards of his ranch friends, that this culprit thought 
of him as being interested solely in the weapon, the 
physical means by which the criminal deed had 
been accomplished. 

One of Roosevelt's partners in the ranching en- 
terprise on the Little ]Missouri was a man named 
Merrifield. He has given us several interesting 



«IN COWBOY LAND" 91 

reminiscences — quite "inside information" — of 
the stern, rugged, daily ranch life. 

"The first night of the round-up Roosevelt said 
to me, 'Now, Merrifield, I've learned to night -herd, 
and you and I will take the trick from ten to twelve 
o'clock.' I had never night-herded myself, so that 
night Roosevelt taught me, and every night after, 
for three weeks, he and I stood night-herd together, 
riding round and round the herd under the stars, 
humming some monotonous old song to the cattle, 
to sort of settle their minds for the night. 

"Roosevelt showed up for the man that he was 
on that round-up. It was hard work, even for 
seasoned hands. You never get enough sleep on a 
round-up for one thing, and I remember men who 
had lived in the saddle for years getting so fagged 
that they were ready to drop. But Roosevelt was 
always among the last to go to bed at night and 
the first to get up in the morning. He asked no 
favors. When he joined the round-up, bringing 
his own string of ten horses, he told Three-Seven 
Bill Jones that he expected to be treated just like 
the other cow-punchers. 

" *I want to work with the wagon as a rider,' he 
said, 'and I want no favors shown me. For the 
time being I am the same as any of the men, and I 
want to do the same work as any of them.' He 
wanted 'no favors', he said, and I can say that he 



92 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

got none. Favors were not being handed about on 
a round-up those days." 

Merrifield gives one incident which reveals 
Roosevelt's stoical self-control under pain. "In his 
string of ten horses he had one mean brute named 
Ben Butler. Several of his horses bucked on occa- 
sion, but Ben Butler had the trick of falling over 
backwards. One afternoon as Roosevelt was start- 
ing out on 'the circle', the horse fell over with him, 
and Roosevelt broke the point of his shoulder. 
There was no doctor within a hundred miles and 
Roosevelt knew it. The break must have hurt him 
badly, but he didn't say a word about it, but just 
got on another horse and went on with the day's 
work. He didn't speak of it again and the rest of 
us forgot about it. The break healed up itself. It 
wasn't until about a year after that I realized what 
he must have suffered. 

"It happened that I broke my ankle that winter 
and was unable to ride for five or six months. Then, 
having bought some cattle, and Sylvane and the 
other cowmen being away on a round-up, I had to 
take them out to ranch. The river was up and I 
had to do a good deal of riding. The second morn- 
ing it was pretty hard; the third morning it was 
something terrible. No human being who hasn't 
gone through it can imagine what it is. I was en- 



«IN COWBOY LAND" 93 

tirely used up. That time Roosevelt got hurt I 
didn't realize what he was up against. 

"And he wasn't the one to tell me. He was grit 
clear through. I was used to rough living and it 
never occurred to me that I might be putting a 
strain on him which took all the grit he had to carry. 
When we got back from the round-up that spring, 
with his shoulder scarcely healed, I didn't think 
anything of putting him on a horse for forty to 
sixty miles a day. We'd ride up to the ranch of a 
man named Gregor Lang, some fifty miles up the 
river, up one day and back again the next. Then 
when we'd had our supper I'd say to him, 'How 
about going out and getting a deer?' 

"He'd say, 'All right!' So we'd get fresh horses 
and start out to kill a deer. 

"After I had broken my ankle and had my les- 
son, I apologized to him for putting him up against 
such a foolish proposition. He laughed. 'Merri- 
field,' he said, 'when you'd bring out that fresh 
horse for me to ride, if I'd had my preference in the 
matter I'd rather have ridden a red-hot stove than 
one of those horses.' " 

In college, Roosevelt always had a great deal of 
that something which we call "influence." His 
opinion or wish counted. On the plains it was the 
same, even among men who naturally and at first 
viewed him with surprise and distrust. 



94 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

"One night," says Merrifield, "we were camped 
at Andrew's Creek, just across the Little Missouri 
from Medora, and all the boys of our outfit and 
most of the other cow-punchers in the round-up 
rode into town and got to drinking. Roosevelt rode 
to town himself later in the evening and about 
eleven o'clock stepped into Tom Slack's saloon. 
The place was crowded with the boys and they 
were pretty noisy, having had about all they could 
carry, and beginning to get careless with their 
guns. Roosevelt gi-eeted them and said, 'One more 
drink, boys,' and going to the bar set up the 
drinks for the crowd, though he never drank him- 
self. Then when the men had their drinks he says, 
'Come on, now, let's go,' and went out, and the 
boys trooped out after him like so many children." 

The ranching enterprise at Medora did not yield 
financial success. A cold winter came on and Sew- 
all estimated that fifty per cent, of the stock per- 
ished. But the outdoor life, the entire change of 
scene, had done what Roosevelt had hoped for. It 
had blunted the sharp edges of his grief and made 
life tolerable and even desirable. 

At about this time — the early autumn of 1886 — 
Roosevelt was one day chatting intimately with his 
friend, Sewall. And he told Sewall that he was 
going back East "to see about a job that had been 



"IN COWBOY LAND" 95 

offered him. He said it was a job he did not want. 
It would keep him in a row all the time." 

And Sewall adds, "I heard, afterward, that 
what he referred to was the nomination for mayor 
of New York." 

Roosevelt had made several short visits to New 
York during this ranching period. On one of these 
brief visits he wrote the characteristic letter which 
I here give, taking it from Mr. Joseph B. Bishop's 
exhaustive and authoritative "Theodore Roosevelt 
and His Time." 

First, a sharp querulous letter to Roosevelt from 
Jefferson Davis, whilom president of the Southern 
Confederacy. 

Beauvain, Miss. 
Sept. 29, 1885. 
Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, 

New York, New York. 
Sir: 

You have recently chosen publicly to associate 
the name of Benedict Arnold with that of Jeffer- 
son Davis, as the only American with whom the 
traitor Arnold need not fear comparison. Y^ou 
must be ignorant indeed of American history if 
you do not know that the career of those characters 
might be aptly chosen for contrast, but not for 
similitude; and if so ignorant, the instinct of a 
gentleman, had you possessed it, must have caused 
you to make inquiry before uttering an accusation 
so libelous and false. I write to you directly to 
repel the unproved outrage, but with too low an 



96 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

estimate of you to expect an honorable retraction 
of your slander. 

Yours, etc., 
(Signed) Jefferson Davis. 

The letter was the choleric outburst, useless and 
ill-advised, of a disappointed, nerve-worn old man ; 
Mr. Davis was then seventy-seven years old. 
Doubtless Roosevelt should not have said what he 
had evidently been reported as saying. But, on re- 
ceiving Mr. Davis's letter, he sent this reply, char- 
acteristic of his instinct to strike back at any man 
who struck or tried to strike him. 

New York, October 8, 1885. 

Mr. Theodore Roosevelt is in receipt of a letter 

purporting to come from Mr. Jefferson Davis, 

^ ^ and denying that the character of Mr. Davis com- 

*" .^L pares unfavorably with that of Benedict Arnold. 

Assuming the letter to be genuine, Mr. Roosevelt 

^j J has only to say that he would be surprised to find 

i\ that his views of the character of Mr. Davis did 

^ not differ from that apparently entertained in 

relation thereto by Mr. Davis himself. Mr. Roose- 
velt begs leave to add that he does not deem it 
necessary that there should be any further com- 
munication whatever between himself and Mr. 
Davis. 

I note the delightful third person in which my 
angry young classmate's reply was couched. But 
*^ > if Roosevelt had been older and Mr. Davis had 

been younger, neither would have written. 



CHAPTER VII 

VICTORS AND SPOILS 

William Sewall was correct in his surmise that 
his beloved "Boss" was returning to New York to 
accept a nomination for the mayoralty. That was 
early in the autumn of 1886. When Roosevelt told 
Sewall that the job which awaited him would keep 
him in a row all the time and that he did not 
like it, I think that he told only half of what he felt. 
In a sense he may have dreaded the strife and 
struggle of the impending campaign, but in a 
larger, more lasting sense he enjoyed the prospect 
of entering it. 

The quality in him which I find most difficult of 
analysis — both by my own study and by consulta- 
tion with my friends and his friends — is his aston- 
ishing energy, expressed both physically and men- 
tally. I cannot account for it fully, either by known 
laws of heredity or by the fact that he persistently 
and intelligently built up and repaired and rebuilt 
his physical as well as his intellectual equipment 
all through his life. The fact that he was a very 
sound sleeper — as he has assured me — will ac- 



98 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

count, at least in part, for his wonderful resources 
of nervous strength. But these explanations do 
not fully explain. He was exceptional in his eager, 
tireless vigor, mental and physical. 

Therefore, when the call to righteous, patriotic 
combat in the municipal arena of New York came 
to him, I know that he welcomed it. Here was 
his opportunity for action, and for action which 
would be on the side of reform and righteousness. 
He welcomed it confidently, out of the full 
stores of his strength, as the thoroughly trained 
pugilist welcomes his adversary in the ring, or the 
well-equipped legal advocate welcomes the district 
attorney. For the pugilist "in the pink of condi- 
tion" and the court advocate armed at all legal 
points are more fully themselves than at any other 
time in their lives. And contest, combat, becomes a 

joy- 

A story told by Mrs. Corinne Roosevelt Robin- 
son regarding her brother illustrates the joy in 
combat of this "Happy Warrior." She recalls his 
"first public speech in New York." It was a form 
of debate at the Union Club. Roosevelt spoke 
first, and upon Americanism. He was followed by 
St. Clair McKelway, who sought to play with this 
new unknown young man, cat-and-mouse fashion. 
He spoke jeeringly yet skillfully of Roosevelt's 
"isms." Applause from the audience punctuated 



VICTORS AND SPOILS 99 

his sentences. Mrs. Robinson — then in her teens 
— ■ grew anxious, because her brother was expected 
to reply. For a short time, as she glanced at him, 
his countenance was grave and even anxious. Then 
she saw his unique smile come to his face and a 
gleam to his eyes, and she knew that he was eager 
to get to his feet. This he did in due time, and 
began vigorously, confidently, joyously, "I do not 
need ten minutes for my reply. I need no more 
than one. I call to the gentleman's attention one 
'ism' very dear to me and much overlooked, here 
and elsewhere, by him. I mean patriot-ism." And 
he poured out a flood of impassioned and even per- 
sonal arraignment which brought a storm of ap- 
plause from the company present and considerably 
disconcerted the indiscreet journalist who had in- 
advertently brought this onslaught upon his own 
head. 

In an hour like that, Roosevelt was* most truly 
himself intellectually, morally; quite as he was 
most truly himself physically, when he faced and 
killed that savage grizzly bear, in 1889, on the west- 
ern side of the Yellowstone Park, Idaho. 

So I feel sure that Roosevelt went back to the 
complexity of New York life and to its relentless 
rivalries and deadly conflicts with a glad smile and 
an eager spirit. But, as it happened, the strife 
upon which he entered was brief, abortive. 



100 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

The political group which had nominated him 
was composed of independents and Republicans 
who sought to defeat the Democratic party, locally 
known as "Tammany", and portrayed in popular 
cartoons as a tiger. Tammany, made anxious by 
the opposition, had nominated an excellent man, 
Abram Hewitt. And this man's popularity was so 
great that struggle against him was doomed to 
failure. Nevertheless Roosevelt went into the con- 
test with zeal and doubtless enjoyed the strenuous 
days and nights, even though he failed of election. 

He was not seriously discouraged, however, and 
he had recovered, in the main, his full vigor of 
body and normal poise of mind and spirit, so im- 
paired by his great sorrow. And he now gave his 
attention to his literary work. Also he went across 
the ocean to England, where, on December second, 
at St. George's, London, he was married to Miss 
Edith Kermit Carow, who had been his playmate in 
childhood. 

The two had been firm friends through the years. 
She and Theodore and Corinne Roosevelt had 
joined in games and excursions many times; and 
when in Europe, at the age of eleven, he had written 
to her — with slightly defective orthography — 
tellinff her that she was his most faithful corre- 
spondent. In his diary of that juvenile period he 
records, "In the evening Mamma showed me a pic- 



VICTORS AND SPOILS 101 

ture of Edith Carow and it stirred up in me home- 
sickness and longings for the past." 

This marriage was a happy union of hearts and 
harmony of temperaments which bore nobly, richly, 
through all the years, the tests that come to all 
married lives. Most happy marriages are based 
upon a divergence of temperaments and a com- 
munity of character. Throughout their united life 
Mrs. Roosevelt was the calming, steadying force 
and he was the originating, resourceful leader. She 
gave a ready and sympathetic ear to his numberless 
plans and helped him to a wise selection among 
them. 

After remaining several months in Europe, the 
two returned to the United States and settled in 
the house which he had built at Sagamore Hill, 
Oyster Bay, Long Island. This was destined to 
be their home, the scene of their happy family life, 
throughout their length of united days. It was 
within an hour's railroad journey of New York 
City, and it afforded all the opportunities for that 
outdoor life, on land and water, which Roosevelt 
and all his family loved so well. 

Here he now set about literary work. Through 
pen and paper he gained that expression of his 
nature which he craved, in a remarkable degree. 
It was inevitable that he should put into writing 
the experiences and reflections which had been his 



102 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

on the wide plains of. the West. He had already 
published his "History of the Naval War of 1812", 
a purely academic work, yet more than a rearrange- 
ment of facts already printed by other writers. In 
it his eager demand for truth asserted itself, and 
the book was a real contribution to the impartial 
estimate of values in that contest between the too 
dominating mother-country and her assertive, sen- 
sitive daughter. 

Roosevelt's "Winning of the West" grew di- 
rectly out of his personal acquaintance with fron- 
tier life, its lack of the embroideries of highly civil- 
ized life, and its possession of the elemental, human 
virtues. His books of travel and adventure were 
simple, vivid narratives of what he had personally 
seen and experienced. And his public addresses, 
put into book form, are really in the same class, 
psychologically, as these. For they were records 
of what he had observed in that human world which 
often becomes a jungle of warring animals, so 
fierce are its competitions. Records of warfare, 
attack and defense, with comments upon them, de- 
ductions from them with advice and guidance for 
future, similar conditions. Righteous struggle, 
moral warfare, Roosevelt always welcomed. 

When I look over the long list of his published 
books, two points strike me. First I wonder that 
he could so curb his physical activity as to 



VICTORS AND SPOILS 103 

sit still at a desk and write them all. Yet 
they were but a manifestation of his energy, of 
his "self-expression", as the phrase now runs. And 
second, looking at the titles alone, a discerning 
critic can see that they are not the product of a 
purely literary man, but the by-product of a man 
of affairs. Action, action, action was the keynote 
of his life. He wrote little or no fiction. He 
never strayed far from facts, with inferences 
from those facts. His biographical and historical 
work was his least characteristic literary output. 
It was academic and it could have been written 
by any one of hundreds of people about him. But 
his "action-literature" in field and forest and in 
the arena of human affairs — this distinctive and 
perspicacious, quite beyond the ordinary. 

Then, back of all that he wrote was his person- 
ality. We glimpse it in his written words, but it 
found full expression only in personal intercourse 
and public addresses. It is this dynamic person- 
ality which will be the perplexing problem of his- 
torians and biographers yet unborn. 

This personality he threw into the great burden- 
some, discouraging work which President Harri- 
son laid upon him, in 1889. He was made one of 
three Civil Service Commissioners. He had learned 
by his experience in the Assembly at Albany that a 
reformer cannot reform — alone. He must work 



104 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

with and through other people. Accordingly, 
young in years yet with the tried temper of a 
veteran, he went into the arduous, unpopular field 
of Civil Service Reform. If President Harrison 
had desired to "shelve" him, as Thomas Piatt did 
later, he could have hit upon no field for him which 
would appear to bring him more enemies and more 
shut him off from political preferment. But this 
was not Harrison's intent. Roosevelt had stood for 
him in his campaign, and the President simply gave 
him difficult work because he believed that he could 
do that work. 

President Harrison probably had some qualms 
of distrust and anxiety as his zealous young ap- 
pointee pushed his reforming personality into un- 
expected strongholds of privilege. Many years 
later, at a meeting in New York, he facetiously 
introduced Roosevelt — then governor of the State 
— as a man who had seemed, at times, "somewhat 
impatient for righteousness." 

So Roosevelt, in the spring of 1889, opened an 
office at Washington and laid his plans for an 
arduous campaign of most unpopular reform. Then 
in September he went West to "take a hack at the 
bears in the Rockies", as he wrote his sister. It 
was one of those avocations, a hunting trip, which 
he intelligently and regularly prescribed for him- 
self as a physical and mental tonic. It was an in- 



VICTORS AND SPOILS 105 

terlude in his political routine which, because of 
two extreme perils which he incurred, nearly 
became his postlude. 

His guide, on this trip into Idaho, was a skillful 
but lawless old hunter named Hank Griffin. He 
could scent game afar but the odor of whisky more 
appealed to him. Roosevelt carried, for an emer- 
gency, a flask of whisky. Griffin got possession 
of this flask secretly, and became cross and unruly. 
And one day the situation was this : Roosevelt had 
said that he would take one of the horses and go 
on the hunt without Griffin. Then Griffin, seated 
with his cocked rifle across his knees, and grinning 
derisively, declared that he would shoot his boss if 
the horse were taken. And he probably would 
have done it. 

The situation had reached an acute stage. But 
Roosevelt met it with sagacity and efficiency. He 
pretended to acquiesce in his guide's ruling and 
moved about the camp, gathering materials for his 
departure on foot. Presently he got within reach 
of his own rifle, seized it, pointed it at the drunken 
ruffian and told him to put up his hands. This was 
done, the guide, however, protesting that he had 
only been joking. But the young Commissioner 
took no chances and made Griffin separate himself 
from his gun. The rest was easy. Roosevelt, with 



106 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

a horse, got away from the camp and returned to 
the settlement. 

On that journey back came the second deadly 
peril, this time from an enraged grizzly bear. He 
said of it, long afterward, that it was the most 
imminent of all the perils of his hunting life. The 
bear, after being wounded, charged him. Roose- 
velt shot again, at extremely close range, and killed 
him. But the animal, in his charge, passed him as 
he sprang aside, and the big forepaw swept within 
a few inches of the young hunter's face. 

This was the kind of diversion which Commis- 
sioner Roosevelt enjoyed in that autumn of 1889. 
And he was now back in another kind of conflict, 
almost as perilous. In seeking to establish the 
merit system of appointments to Federal offices, the 
Commission — of which John R. Proctor was the 
nominal head — was daring to stem a tide of prece- 
dent and custom which had come down, in all politi- 
cal parties, since the days of Andrew Jackson. "To 
the victors belong the spoils" was an axiom at 
Washington. It was the same vicious "putting of 
the cart before the horse" which can be seen to- 
day in the school appointments of most of our 
towns and cities. "Give the residents of our own 
town the positions as teachers !" demand the voters, 
and the school committees follow that suggestion. 
No thought of the capacity of the teacher or of the 



ii 



VICTORS AND SPOILS 107 

needs of the pupils. The teacherships are regarded 
as rewards. 

That was the almost universal rule of political 
appointment, when Roosevelt, like another Her- 
cules, set himself to clean out the Augean stables 
of Federal officialdom. Vice-president Hendricks, 
in 1884, put the patronage principle in a pic- 
turesque form. "We must take the boys in out of 
the cold, to warm their toes." The Cleveland and 
Hendricks administration being a Democratic af- 
fair, and the first for twenty-four years, there was 
doubtless considerable eagerness on the part of 
"workers" to get close to the fire. Although he 
was not the nominal head of the much-hated Com- 
mission, Roosevelt speedily became its leading 
member. Later in life, when asked about the fac- 
tor of luck in his career, he said that some things 
did happen and some did not. "For my own part," 
he added, "I have tried to put myself where things 
were likely to happen." And in that bit of com- 
mon-sense philosopy he gave the only practical 
solution I have ever heard given to the academic 
problem of free will. 

In no period of his stormy career did Roosevelt 
have as mountainous a wall of opposition to sur- 
mount as in his Civil Service days, and with much 
less background of prestige than in later reforms. 
As we survey his Titanic efforts of that period, we 



108 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

feel a momentary thrill of pity. But that thrill is 
quenched speedily as we remember — and must al- 
ways keep in mind, in any analysis of his character 
and successes and failures — that he dearly loved 
combat. Be it with a grizzly bear or a border ruf- 
fian or entrenched political power, he was happy 
when fighting, and always, without exception, his 
fighting was for right and truth as it was given him 
to see them. 

Scores of times, in this Civil Service crusade, he 
forced committees, bearded officials in their dens, 
and dominated mass meetings, and then, at each 
day's close, slept the full, deep sleep of a child 
with unclouded heart, and rose refreshed on the 
morrow to renew the conflict. 

Not only did he evince unconquerable courage, 
but he was eminently sane and, practical, and he 
was fast becoming astute. He knew that he was 
right in urging the merit system of appointments, 
but he could understand the surprise and opposi- 
tion as such "Old-timers" as his faithful friend Joe 
Murray, to whom the maxim "To the victors be- 
long the spoils" was as fundamental as any com- 
mand of the decalogue. With a sad smile but a 
firm pen Roosevelt must have written, many years 
afterward, "There was a certain thinness, morally, 
in some of the Civil Service advocates. This made 
them distrusted by vigorous human men like my 



VICTORS AND SPOILS 109 

friend Joe Murray. He always felt that my Civil 
Service Reform work was the one blot on my 
otherwise excellent public record." 

One incident out of scores which might be cited 
shows the sanity and then the consistent moral tone 
in Roosevelt's character. I refer to the well-known 
Shidy case. It came in 1890. Hundreds of offices 
had been set apart to be filled under the merit sys- 
tem. Roosevelt learned that appointments con- 
trary to the new merit system had been made in 
Milwaukee. He at once investigated, found that a 
member of the local Civil Service board was the 
center of the plot, had a personal interview with 
him, and agreed to keep him in office on the board 
if he would tell the whole story. 

This looks like compounding a felony. But 
Roosevelt never was frightened by big words. He 
saw that the only means at hand for laying bare 
the fraud was to promise immunity to Shidy. In 
a choice of evils he chose the lesser and went ahead. 
Shidy confessed, the ^lilwaukee postmaster was 
dismissed, and Shidy remained in office. 

Comes the second half of the story. A Washing- 
ton newspaper played up the incident, roused some 
public feeling, and soon afterward Shidy was dis- 
missed from office. Roosevelt, faihng to have him 
reestablished, went to the trouble of procuring for 
him a clerkship in the Census Bureau which had 



110 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

not been brought under the merit rule. Thus he 
solved a complicated problem and solved it on the 
"square deal" plan, with a dash of human sym- 
pathy thrown in. 

Opponents of the merit system had much to say, 
in those days of 1888 to 1894 — and have to-day 
also — and with partial truth on their side: that 
examinations which must be carried on in writing 
could not express the worth and capacity of the 
candidate. Roosevelt saw the reasonableness of 
this claim, but he could see more than one side of 
almost any question. And he simply took the 
ground that imperfect as written and "theoretical" 
tests were, they were better than the "reward" 
method, the "spoils" system. 

He even advocated that practical tests should 
be applied where possible, as in the case of appli- 
cants for appointments as custom inspectors in 
Texas, where the men should be tested, he thought, 
in marksmanship and horsemanship. Such a plan 
seemed visionary to most people at that time, but 
he had foresight years ahead of his contemporaries, 
as usual. Such tests afterward were actually ap- 
plied. 

This was perhaps the most contentious period 
of reformer Roosevelt's contentious life. Uphill 
work against time-honored prejudice and misty 
public opinion all the way. One of the incidents — 



VICTORS AND SPOILS 111 

that tilt of his with RepubHcan Congressman Gros- 
venor, of Ohio — brings out in a clear light the 
tenacity of Roosevelt, his way of "fighting a fight 
to the finish." Grosvenor looked after the wool in- 
terests of a few thousand sheep-owners in his State. 
This got him the sobriquet of "The Gentle Shep- 
herd of Ohio." He now attacked the Ci\il Service 
reform. Roosevelt asked that he, Grosvenor, be 
summoned to testify at the hearing. But "The 
Gentle Shepherd" did not like to come to close 
quarters with the young reformer. He thereupon 
stated that he would be "unavoidably absent." But 
he heard soon after that Roosevelt was to be away 
on his ranch in the West. Accordingly he sent a 
message that he found he could be present, after 
all. 

Then Roosevelt went to the extreme. He gave 
up his trip, attended the hearing, and tied up the 
astonished Congressman in his own strained logic 
as completely as ever a public official was tied up 
in red tape. 

It was just one fight after another, that Civil 
Service term. And making enemies for himself 
all the time, yes, and alienating sincere but shallow 
friends. Yet he rejoiced in it. It was very life to 
him. He had truth and right on his side, and this 
nerved him to incessant action. "His strength was 
as the strength of ten, because his heart was pure." 



112 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

I know, too, that his sunny sense of humor, so 
rich and unfaihng, helped him through many 
cloudy days. Take the case of Senator Gorman of 
Maryland. Roosevelt must have enjoyed fight- 
ing it through and enjoyed writing about it in his 
biography, many years afterward. As I read his 
account of the case, lighted by humorous touches 
throughout, I can see, in my fancy, the twinkle in 
his eyes and the unique smile which punctuated his 
sentences. 

Mr. Gorman had attacked the Civil Service re- 
form. And, to illustrate its weakness, he cited the 
case of "A bright young man from Baltimore, a 
Sunday-school scholar, recommended by his pas- 
tor, and an applicant for a position as letter car- 
rier. They asked him questions," said Gorman, 
"about the shortest route to China, and about 
steamship lines to Europe. And the young man re- 
sponded that he had not desired to go to China or 
Europe. Then came questions," continued the 
Maryland senator, "about chemistry, and branched 
into geology, and they finally turned him down." 

Roosevelt, recalling the controversy, writes, 
"Apparently Mr. Gorman did not know that we 
kept full records of our examinations. I wrote him 
that I could find record of no such questions and 
then asked for the name of 'The bright young man 
from Baltimore.' But that 'bright young man' re- 



VICTORS AND SPOILS 113 

mained permanently without a name. I wrote to 
the senator that perhaps the young applicant had 
deceived him. But Mr. Gorman — not hitherto 
known as a sensitive soul — said he was 'shocked' at 
my doubts of his young friend's veracity. So I 
made a public statement of the whole case. Then 
]Mr. Gorman declared in the Senate that he had re- 
ceived an 'impudent' letter from me, and had been 
'cruelly' called to account when he was trying to 
right a great wrong. But he never made public 
any clew to the identity of that child of his fond- 
est fancy — 'the bright young man' without a 
name." 

Those of us who have exchanged letters with 
Roosevelt know his rapid and somewhat illegible 
handwriting. At a Civil Service investigation, one 
of the insolent defenders of the spoils system criti- 
cized sharply his chirography. "You yourself, Mr. 
Roosevelt, could not pass an examination in hand- 
writing, such as you require of candidates. Your 
writing is a pinched-up sort, like a lady's hand." 

The young Commissioner came back at him 
sharply: "That is true. I would not be qualified 
for a position as a clerk in a department, but I am 
not applying for one. But I am qualified to be a 
commissioner of Civil Service and to maintain its 
principles against the efforts of such men as you 



114 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

who are doing so much to injure our governmental 
efficiency." 

In this connection, the reader may be interested 
to look at a specimen of Roosevelt's handwriting; 
and I introduce a brief letter — one of many — 
which I received from him. There is little that 
need be said about it except that it was evidently 
the work of a writer who did not consume more 
time than was necessary over the details of his 
voluminous correspondence. 

Most men who have reached the age of fifty, 
looking back over their lives, can point to a few 
situations where they were in danger of personal 
physical encounter with other men. With the 
great majority of us, such strained moments are 
few. But, in Roosevelt's case, there were many. 
He never consciously insulted or "dared" or of- 
fended any man; but he was naturally impulsive 
and frank, and also he knew not fear. So that 
some of us can recall several occasions when he was 
close to physical encounter, indeed several where he 
actually was engaged in it. 

His drastic application of the merit-system rules, 
as fast as they were framed, fairly maddened some 
of the veterans statesmen and politicians. As one 
of his friends said to him, "He was always an ag- 
gressive knight, with lance always ready." An 
occasion where a fist-fight was narrowly averted 



VICTORS AND SPOILS 115 

is thus recalled by Colonel E. W. Halford, for a 
time private secretary to President Harrison. "A 
prominent Congressman was in my room at the 
White House one day, and was repeating some of 
the bitter cheap charges against Roosevelt and 
Civil Service reform, which he had made, in a 
speech in the House, the day before. At that 
moment the Commissioner came in. Immediately 
the fireworks began; and in a moment or two the 
He was passed. I got between the two, and the 
Congressman left the room. INIr. Roosevelt then 
apologized to me and said that he realized that any 
man who struck another, in the President's house, 
could not remain his appointee; and if he had ex- 
changed blows with the other man he would at 
once have written out his resignation." 

That was a fine touch on Roosevelt's part, but 
not surprising to any who knew him intimately. 
The story has a cheering sequel, however, as here 
given by Colonel Halford. "In the same room, sev- 
eral years afterward, the same Congressman sat 
one day talking with President McKinley. Roose- 
velt entered, saw his former opponent, took a seat 
modestly, and waited. Presently the Congress- 
man, still addressing the President, but fully aware 
of Roosevelt's presence, remarked, 'McKinley, you 
remember a fellow named Roosevelt, who was 
Harrison's Civil Service Commissioner. He was 



116 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

the most impracticable man I ever saw. I notice 
that you have, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 
a man of the same name. But it can't be the same 
man for your man is about the most efficient officer 
I have ever known.' 

"That was handsome of him. So Roosevelt, al- 
ways chivalrous, magnanimous, thought also. And 
he strode across the room, grasped his ancient foe's 
hand heartily, and exclaimed, 'Put it there! It's all 
right, hereafter.' And the two were friends from 
that moment." 

In all this reform work and in later fields of re- 
form, Theodore Roosevelt was an Idealist. But 
that word is so stretched and strained in our day 
that it has lost most of its definite meaning. Apart 
from its strictly metaphysical signification and in 
its popular denotation, the word Idealist means 
"one who believes in larger ethical aims than the 
world at present has realized." But a man may 
believe in these larger guiding ideas ^nd yet not 
lift a finger to get them realized. Or a man may 
believe in the larger ideals and use them solely to 
advance his own interests. Such a man is a slave of 
"ambition, that last infirmity of noble minds." But 
the true type of idealist is the ethical, working 
idealist, the man who not only sees the better way 
but pursues it for the good of his country or the 
world. 



VICTORS AND SPOILS 117 

Such a man was Theodore Roosevelt, eager for 
the advance of his country into ever nobler paths 
and ready always to sacrifice his personal ease and 
self-interest for that end. 

He had ideals in many fields — scholarship, 
friendship, as husband and father, and wherever 
his active, eager spirit led. But apparently his 
ideal of his native land had special authority over 
him. He loved his country profoundly, and he 
seemed to see it glorified, radiant before and above 
him like a heavenly constellation. And by it, 
through all his strenuous career, his path was de- 
termined and his footsteps guided. 



CHAPTER VIII 

"the finest" refined 

We read in the ancient Greek myths and legends 
about the "Labors of Hercules", but we are not 
told whether that hero saw them in series ahead of 
him, or took them one at a time, seeing and accom- 
plishing each for itself alone. The entire series, 
taken as a whole, might have daunted him. If 
Theodore Roosevelt, at twenty-two, standing on 
the threshold of his mature life, could have known 
the series of arduous tasks of public service in which 
his life would be summed up at the age of sixty- 
two — even he of iron will and unflagging enthu- 
siasm might have been dismayed. 

Other men have held public office, have done 
good routine work, and have thriven on it; they 
have made of their name scarcely more than a rub- 
ber stamp, and have left a fairly good record for 
efficiency. But he was never content with this per- 
functory method. He sought to bring every pub- 
lic work upon which he entered as close as possible 
to perfection. That is idealism in a working man. 
And when the man holds his idealism in one hand 



"THE FINEST" REFINED 119 

and with the other hand lays hold of the realities 
of human nature and the facts of human life, in- 
dividual and group — that is sane, practical ideal- 
ism. 

After his reformative career in the New York 
legislature, Roosevelt was rather expected to re- 
form whatever department he was put into. And 
most of them needed reform. So when William 
D. Strong, himself "Reform JMayor" of New York, 
offered the position of Police Commissioner to him, 
the mayor expected a certain amount of disturb- 
ance and protest throughout the dives and saloons 
of the city and among the blackmailers at City 
Hall. And he was not disappointed. The smaller 
liquor dealers and retailers without a "pull" had 
been forced to pay to the police any sums de- 
manded. But the larger dealers got immunity by 
reason of the political support they gave to Tam- 
many. Even policemen were appointed to the force 
only after their payment of money to the "men 
higher up." Three hundred dollars was the 
amount required from a man seeking the position 
of patrolman. 

The old Knickerbocker municipality had become 
a sink of iniquity, a cesspool of corruption. Good 
men had tried to improve conditions, but had given 
up the task. They sadly prophesied the same out- 
come for Roosevelt. Following Lowell's couplet. 



120 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

it might be said that "Wrong was on the throne" 
and was sardonically awaiting a gagged and blind- 
folded victim "on the scaifold." But the. young 
veteran from the Civil Service reform arena en- 
tered smilingly, yet sternly, upon his "job", put 
two iron years of eiFort into it, and when in 1897 
he left it, the judge who charged the Grand Jury 
of New York County congratulated that jury and 
the public at large "upon the phenomenal decrease 
in crime, especially of the violent sort." 

It has been said of Roosevelt, now that his eager, 
strenuous life is over, that great though he was, he 
lacked the ability to. delegate his work to under 
officials. There are two sides to that method. If 
those delegated under officials are faithful, well 
and good ; their superior is left free to cover more 
territory, and thus accomplish more. But fully 
half the inefficiencies and corruptions in govern- 
ments arise from the failure of weak or wicked 
"under officials" to carry out measures which were 
born in purity and high intent in the hearts of their 
superior officers. 

Well did Theodore Roosevelt know this. And 
throughout his victorious career he owed much of 
his strength and efficiency to the fact that he in- 
sisted on basing his actions upon facts which he had 
at first hand. Therefore, in his transformation of 
the corrupt police of New York, in his refining of 



"THE FINEST" REFINED 121 

"The Finest" — for thus that executive municipal 
body was often called — he dug down to bottom 
facts of fraud and tyranny; he even patrolled the 
streets by day and night, to know for himself where 
the blame lay. These diurnal and nocturnal tours 
of investigation gained for him among the initiate 
the not inappropriate name of Haroun-al-Roose- 
velt ; and thus East and West did meet. 

The story of his adventurous two years as 
Police Commissioner would be imperfect without 
grateful reference to Jacob Riis, at that time a 
man whose vocation was newspaper reportorial 
work, but whose avocation was the uplifting of 
New York City out of fraud, tyranny, and corrup- 
tion to justice and self-respect. Rudyard Kipling 
is reported to have said of New York that "It had 
a government by the worst elements of its popula- 
tion, tempered by occasional insurrections of re- 
spectable citizens." But Jacob Riis's struggle for 
the redemption of the city was not occasional. It 
was continuous. Alone and unaided he would have 
fought the good fight. But when Theodore Roose- 
velt stepped into Police Headquarters at INIul- 
berry Street, these two men entered into one of 
the noblest, purest coalitions in all history. They 
worked together for municipal reforms, and inci- 
dentally they formed a friendship — men of ex- 
tremely divergent antecedents though they were — 



122 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

which was not outshone by the friendship of 
Damon and Pjdhias or that of David and Jona- 
than. 

The respect and affection between the two 
clear-minded ideahsts was mutual. Roosevelt 
said of Riis, after his death, "Next to my own 
father he was the best man I have ever known." 
And when we read Riis's vivid description of 
Roosevelt's earnest deeds, we feel the beat of the 
loyal Danish heart which inspired the fiery, elo- 
quent descriptions. You will rarely read more 
terse, intense English than you can find on the 
pages of his books. Take his summing up of city 
police conditions, after the new Commissioner had 
put in a year's work. "Amazing as it was, 'pull' 
was dead. Politics or religion cut no figure. No 
one asked about them. But did a policeman, 
pursuing a burglar through the night, dive, run- 
ning, into the Park Avenue railroad tunnel, risking 
a horrible death to catch his man, he was promptly 
promoted. Did a bicycle-policeman lie with broken 
bones, after a struggle with a dangerous runaway 
horse, he rose from his bed with a medal for 
bravery on his breast. Did a gray-haired veteran 
rescue a drowning woman from among grinding 
ice floes, he was called to headquarters and made 
a sergeant." 

The list of such cases, still on record, is almost 



"THE FINEST" REFINED 123 

endless. Efficiency in the service was rewarded 
and inefficiency was firmly eliminated. And the 
policemen, after they recovered from their first 
panic under the new regime, knew that a firm, just 
hand held the reins; and they trusted that leader- 
ship and were proud of it. 

Doubtless that association with Jacob Riis, the 
trained newspaper man, quickened Roosevelt's in- 
clination to place his reform purposes as much 
as possible before the public eye. All his later life 
he did that very thing. He knew how the turgid 
incumbents of fat offices would oppose and mis- 
represent him. And he sought to appeal every 
case, as far as he could, from their biased, in- 
triguing councils to the tribunals of the People. 

So the newspapers were full of the doings of the 
new Police Commissioner. Other public depart- 
ments sank into obscurity. Roosevelt got the ear 
and eye of the "plain people", so called. "Where 
McGregor sat was the head of the table." 

Roosevelt's record as Police Commissioner, his 
persistent, fearless fight for justice and high 
standards, reads like a dime novel, so filled it is with 
sensational situations and daring deeds; yet it is 
all true and verifiable. To him, with his berserker 
blood running freely in his veins, it became almost 
commonplace, so continuous it was. 

Out of the scores of incidents which might be 



124 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

adduced to throw light upon his many-sided char- 
acter, I select three. The first of these is the well- 
known episode of the anti-Semitic demagogue, 
Ahlwardt. This rabid hater of the Jewish race 
announced a public meeting on a certain date. 
Several of the members of that race asked Roose- 
velt to deny the man a license for his meeting. 
,But Roosevelt did not wish to forcibly repress 
public speaking if such repression could be avoided. 
Therefore — with what I am sure was a mirthful 
twinkle of his eyes and a widening of his unique 
smile — he detailed a Jewish sergeant and forty 
Jewish policemen to station themselves in the hall 
during the meeting, and suppress, if necessary, 
that violence and uproar which Ahlwardt un- 
doubtedly courted. 

The meeting went through peaceably, laughably 
so, and gained no notoriety for the disappointed 
demagogue. And the incident stands on record 
as one which exemplified most delightfully the 
blend of humor and sagacity in Theodore Roose- 
velt's nature. 

Two other incidents which I present raise a 
question regarding Roosevelt's qualities which I 
find it hard to answer. 

First, there was the case of the disloyal fellow- 
member of the Police Commission. There were 
four members of the Commission. This particular 



"THE FINEST" REFINED 125 

man, P , professed great sympathy for Roose- 
velt and his reform work. But Joseph Bishop, 
who details the narrative, was convinced of this 
man's falsity, and warned his friend Roosevelt. 
In vain. As Bishop tells it in his biography, "In 
accordance with his invariable and incurable tend- 
ency, he persisted in placing full confidence in 
this man simply because the man professed full 
devotion to him," 

Thus matters ran on for months, Bishop sus- 
picious, anxious, and Roosevelt trustful. Then 

came the denouement. P gave to Roosevelt 

a garbled account of Bishop's estimate of Roose- 
velt; an account partly true but conveying an 
utterly false impression as a whole. A sharp sum- 
mons from Roosevelt brought Bishop to an ex- 
planation. And that explanation made clear to 
the Police Commissioner that P was treach- 
erous and should not be relied upon. Bishop's 
surmises were confirmed by the subsequent conduct 

of P . He went over openly to Roosevelt's 

enemies and brought a deadlock into the proceed- 
ings of the Board. 

The point which interests in this episode is that 
it raises the question as to how skilled Roosevelt 
was in reading human nature. I have heard inti- 
mate friends of his speak admiringly and unre- 
servedly of his astuteness and his knowledge of 



126 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

men. But was he really skillful and penetrating 
in this field? 

The other incident which I recall, as bearing! 
upon this point of my classmate's character, isj 
given by Riis. A certain policeman, who ha( 
neglected his duties on several occasions, at lasl 
received from Mulberry Street his notice of dis- 
missal. But the man had "piped off" (as Riis 
says) the kindly nature of the President of the 
Board. And one day he presented himself at^ 
headquarters with eleven youngsters trailing aftei 
him, some of them wailing dismally. The Presi- 
dent had just come to the office, fresh from a romp 
with his own youngsters. And here stood this for- 
lorn, discharged patrolman, with his unhappy little 
ones around him. The policeman waved a hand 
dejectedly over the group and then toward his 
tender-hearted chief. "Motherless they are," he 
said; and waited humbly. 

The inevitable result followed. Roosevelt rein- 
stated him; and the doleful little group filed out. 

Very good, that, so far as heart was concerned. 
But how about head? For only two of the eleven 
children were the policeman's own. The other 
nine were borrowed for the occasion. 

The fact is that Roosevelt had keen knowledge 
of human nature when his emotions were not 
stirred. Also, his discernment deepened as his 



"THE FINEST" REFINED 127 

experience of men widened. But, essentially, he 
was a man of many and strong emotions. And 
these, many times in his life, impaired his judg- 
ment. 

In a conversation with Miss Josephine Strieker, 
for a dozen and more years his efficient secretary 
and his intensely loyal friend, I laid before her 
this question of Roosevelt's reading of human 
nature. And her opinion was clear and firm and 
in accord with Mr. Bishop's opinion. "Mr. Roose- 
velt," she said, "was not of a suspicious but a 
trustful nature. He trusted too much. He be- 
lieved every man innocent until the man proved 
himself guilty." 

So there is the interesting psychological prob- 
lem in any analysis of Roosevelt's character. My 
own solution is that he had a great and increasing 
penetration of mind into the character and motives 
of men. But his judgment was frequently clouded 
and deflected by his strong emotions. And, second, 
in the coldly intellectual field he was handicapped, 
in any judicial intentions, by his fertile self-expres- 
sion, which he constantly strove to moderate and 
revise, but not always with success. 

If we push this reading of human nature out 
beyond its bearing upon individuals to its bearing 
upon groups — political parties and nations, for 
example — we find that he was perspicacious in a 



128 ROOSEVELT THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

wonderful degree and sometimes almost supernat- 
urally prophetic. Everybody knows this, at this 
late day, even those who in former days honestly 
thought him a "time-server" or "firebrand." Yet 
in one field, at least, his perceptions miscarried, — 
his optimistic confidence in the American people, 
his fellow citizens, that they were as much interested 
in bettering public service as he was. Further, 
that they would go, cheerfully, as many times to 
the voting booths as he would go. Hence his 
projects of the Initiative and the Referendum. 
But facts prove the contrary. The voters of the 
nation will go to the polls once a year, weather 
permitting, in goodly numbers. In an emergency, 
twice a year. But no more. Roosevelt measured 
the patriotism of the people by his own unflagging 
devotion to the country he loved, and he misjudged 
the situation. His own noble emotions deflected 
his judicial opinion. 

However, "the people" were much on his mind 
and heart. Little wonder that he credited them 
with more than they deserved. In New York, 
during his service at Mulberry Street, his repeated 
appeals for support in his vigorous reforms were 
to the public, the people. And, temporarily, they 
backed him. All through his public career his 
hope of support lay in the "plain people" behind 
self-interested officials, factions, and cabals. He 



"THE FINEST" REFINED 129 

said to a friend, in reply to a leading question, 
"The people at large disappoint me again and 
again, and then when I am almost discouraged and 
hopeless, they rise up and do something so mag- 
nificent that it restores all my confidence in them." 

The days and weeks succeeded one another, in 
his work as Police Commissioner, and each day 
and week brought its conflicts and contests. Ordi- 
nary attacks by corrupt opponents did not much 
trouble him. He "scented battle from afar" and 
rejoiced in it when the clash came. But some kinds 
of attacks upon himself were harder to bear than 
others. To be called a liar or a thief did not dis- 
turb him. Those plain Saxon words were often 
upon his own lips. But to be called hard-hearted, 
cruel, heedless of the downtrodden and oppressed, 
— that stirred him with indignation and righteous 
wrath. Take the case of the pernicious, evil-breed- 
ing lodging rooms of the police stations. They 
were barren of uplifting aid to the tramps and they 
were harmful to the community. And Roosevelt 
closed them. 

Then arose reviMngs from various kinds of 
people, — both those vicious, slothful persons who 
were now thrown out upon their own resources and 
also from substantial philanthropists. The vener- 
able chairman of the Charter Revision Committee 
asked him sternly if he "had no pity for the poor." 



130 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

And that attitude toward the tender-hearted Com- 
missioner really wounded him. But he was right; 
and he persisted. And every worker among the 
needy classes, among the "down and outs", knows 
that Roosevelt simply anticipated by a few years 
the enlightened policy, under similar conditions, 
of our charitable societies. 

The tourist at the Roman Forum is shown that 
there are several forums, one beneath another, 
modern, medieval, and ancient, with minor epochs 
identifiable among these larger ones. Similarly, 
in Roosevelt's character, as in most men, there 
are various layers, or personalities, one under an- 
other. And the warm-hearted, tender Roosevelt 
was as real as the stern official Commissioner. 
When I asked Oscar Straus to tell me, from his 
intimate association with President Roosevelt 
during Roosevelt's presidency, what quality most 
impressed him, his reply was: "His tenderness. 
He had other remarkable qualities, but his kind- 
ness of heart, his consideration of the feelings of 
his associates in the Cabinet — that was what struck 
me." And Mr. Straus continued, "There were 
times when something was needed to be done by 
some member of the Cabinet which was likely to 
bring to that man public disapproval. And I have 
known President Roosevelt to say, *I won't ask 



"THE FINEST" REFINED 131 

you to do that. I'll do it myself. I'm tough and 
I can bear it.' " 

His range of interests, continually added to 
and enlarged through his entire life, often sur- 
prises me anew. At one moment I see him grasp- 
ing great problems, in his several official stations, 
and I see him a rising statesman of increasing 
eminence. Then I read in his Autobiography about 
Otto Raphael, the stalwart young Jew, who was 
well-fitted for pohce duty but had not possessed 
the requisite "pull." Roosevelt urged him to take 
the examination; he passed, was appointed to the 
force, and acquitted him^self most creditably, in- 
cidentally supporting several members of his 
family still in Russia. 

Thus Roosevelt writes the narrative. And then 
comes a touch characteristically Rooseveltian ; it 
could have come from no other of the long and 
variegated list of statesmen and high officers in 
this country. He closes his narration thus: 

"I will mention that Otto and I were almost the 
only men in the Police Department who picked 
Fitzsimmons as a winner against Corbett." 

These are some of the exterior phases of Roose- 
velt's regime, in his police reform work in New 
York City. But, inside all this accumulation of 
exciting facts and repeated successes, the rebuild- 
ing of his own character went on. For he was, I 



132 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

repeat, the most truly self-made man whom I 
know, in American annals. And to remake himself 
he must first know himself. He did know himself. 
He was honest with himself ; and he was unflinch- 
ing in his self -arraignments over failures or de- 
ficiencies. 

As one of the many illustrations which might be 
given of Roosevelt's phenomenal power of proph- 
ecy, I recall that it was at this time that he wrote 
his "History of New York City." And noteworthy 
it is, as illustrating also his farsightedness, that 
in that book, published in 1903, he declares that 
we must cut out all hyphens from American names. 
And he urges an undivided American citizenship. 
That cry is uttered far and wide in our land to-day, 
but when he uttered it, his solitary voice was like 
that of "one crying in the wilderness." 

This chapter may well close with a quotation 
from Jacob Riis, himself a true man and a loyal 
citizen. "We rarely realize, in these days, how 
much of our ability to fight for good government 
is due to the campaign of honesty waged by Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, in Mulberry Street." 



CHAPTER IX 

THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Who is the Happy Warrior? Who is he 
That every man in arms should wish to be? 
... It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought 
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought 
Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought: 
Whose high endeavors are an inward light 
That makes the path before him always bright: 
Who, with a nataral instinct to discern 
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn ; 

Who, doomed to go in company with Pain, 
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train! 
Turns his necessity to glorious gain. 

Having reached this point in my survey of 
Theodore Roosevelt's character and career, I have 
been brought to pause by a conversation which I 

held, recently, with Doctor L , faithful 

friend of many years to the unique household at 
Sagamore Hill. When I urged that my classmate 
was essentially a fighting man, that he really loved 

combat, physical and intellectual. Dr. L 

demurred. And we debated earnestly the question. 
But now, after several weeks of reading and re- 
reading and reflection, I hold to my position. JMy 
classmate loved combat, — attack and defense, 



134 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

struggle for moral principles, warfare on palaces 
of privilege and dens of degradation. Thank God 
he did. Thus he was able to "fight the good fight" 
through all his days, indomitable to the end. And, 
as he said repeatedly to friends, life was a joy to 
him. He was indeed a "Happy Warrior." 

Said my beloved professor, William James, "If 
this life is not a real fight, in which something is 
eternally gained for the universe by success, it is 
no better than a game of private theatricals. But 
it feels like a real fight." 

To my former college mate as to my former 
college instructor, it "felt like a fight." And in 
the case of both those splendid men, there was also 
this divine overtone — as the musicians say — to 
the clash of arms and the din of battle, that the 
very stars in their courses were fighting with them 
for truth and right. 

Theodore Roosevelt loved struggle, combat, con- 
quest, in all their varied forms. That point I still 
maintain, as in previous chapters of this book. 
And, if I may add one anecdotal confirmation of 
my judgment, I will quote our classmate, Charles 
Washburn, who says that once, in his later life, 
he asked Roosevelt what act or experience of his 
past had been most joyous. And Roosevelt, after a 
moment's reflection, replied, "The charge up San 
Juan Hill." 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 135 

He had achieved unprecedented success. But, 
"The blood more stirs to rouse a Hon than to start 
a hare." And Roosevelt, "ever a fighter", like Rob- 
ert Browning, was now called to a larger field of 
reform. His hand-to-hand struggle with saloon 
keepers, dive owners, thieves, and corrupt ward 
politicians had been a trampling under foot of 
I vermin, — rats and snakes, shall we say? Now, 
through the unsought agency of his friend, Henry 
Cabot Lodge, he was called by President McKin- 
ley, in 1897, to serve the nation as Assistant 
Secretary of the Navy. 

His studies for his "History of the Naval War 
! of 1812", published in 1882, had given him sound, 
, wide views of this branch of the Federal Gov- 
; ernment. But, knowing his "Chief" as I did. 
Secretary John D. Long, efficient, patriotic but 
circumspect — very — I have always smiled as I 
have pictured Governor Long's face of furrowed 
anxiety when this dynamic young reformer entered 
the calm atmosphere of the Navy Department. 
Lodge wrote to Roosevelt, March 8, 1897, a letter 
which hits off so admirably one of Secretary 
Long's characteristics that I quote from it. "I 
have seen Long. . . . He spoke in the highest 
terms of you. . . . He expects to be consulted 
about your appointment." Then this: "Long 
says, 'Roosevelt has the character, standing, and 



136 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

ability to enable him to be a Cabinet Minister. Is 
not this appointment in the Navy Department too 
small for him?' " 

That was Governor Long's way. Wise, cau- 
tious, never hasty, never losing his head through 
enthusiasm. Hardly. But efficient, and on the 
whole disposed to advance Roosevelt, yet sorry 
that Roosevelt was not to be somewhere else, — • 
even in a full Cabinet office, rather than under his 
Secretarial roof. 

So Theodore Roosevelt, "increasing in years and 
wisdom", took up his abode, with his family, at 
Washington, and turned his current of energy into 
the rusty machinery of the Navy Department. 
Long, believing in him, yet dreading his tireless, 
fearless, reforming spirit, looked on, smiling ap- 
proval but keeping his cautious hand always near 
the brake. 

With his swift, penetrating survey, the new 
Assistant Secretary grasped the unpreparedness 
of our navy. And most of his effort while in office 
was put forth to remedy that defect. He desired 
peace with all other nations as earnestly as did 
any member of the American Peace Society; but 
he blended that desire with more intelligence, with 
more insight into the cold facts about men and 
nations than was evinced by most of those well- 
intentioned people. I myself was an accredited. 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 137 

unpaid lecturer of that typical peace organization 
through several years; and I know how fiercely 
many of those "peace-loving" people fought Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. They preferred, most of them — 
like Wilham Jennings Bryan, with his sterile 
treaties falling from his fertile pen like the leaves in 
the Vale of Vallombrosa — "scraps of paper." 

How angry I became at the fatuous, short- 
sighted oracles of our peace societies! And how 
admirably my classmate summed them up in a 
sentence or two! "There are high-minded, earnest 
people who in a genuine fashion strive for peace; 
and then there are those foolish fanatics, always to 
be found in such a cause and discrediting it, — the 
men who form the lunatic fringe in all reform 
movements." 

"Preparedness" became his watchword as soon 
as he had gained knowledge of his new official sur- 
roundings. And going, as usual, to the root of 
the matter, he saw that good marksmanship on 
warships was as important as the warships them- 
selves. But the administration was reluctant to 
expend money on either of these. Nevertheless, 
by persistence and personal appeal, he did get ap- 
propriations from Congress, and new ships were 
built, old ones were repaired, and other vessels 
were acquired by purchase. 

Through all the indifference of Congress and 



138 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

the opposition of the bureaus, he plowed his cheer- 
ful, intelligent way. His cheerfulness amid his 
perplexing duties is hinted at by a young fellow- 
worker, who narrates, "Late one afternoon, in 
Washington, we were ending a business round 
through the city. We started to take a street car. 
'Have you the price of a ride about you?' inquired 
Mr. Roosevelt, smiling and feeling in his pockets. 
I replied, as I went through my own pockets, that 
I had not. My delightful companion rejoined, 
with a smile, 'Then, let's walk. Anyhow, it speaks 
well for the honesty of our government's officials 
when two of them, having just spent a million or 
two dollars, haven't kept enough in their own 
pockets to pay for carfares.' " 

The young secretary was not only efficient in 
his affairs, but he was a delightful asset for any 
host at a dinner table. I have heard that the 
President received a call from some foreign dig- 
nitary and felt constrained to ask his visitor to 
dine. Then, feeling a little burdened at the pros- 
pect of entertaining this alien guest, he invited the 
young Assistant Naval Secretary to the dinner and 
seated him next the foreign visitor. The dinner 
passed off smoothly. Roosevelt and the decorated 
dignitary seemed to have plenty of talk between 
them. At one point in the conversation the Presi- 
dent caught the drift of their conversation, and was 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 139 

somewhat astonished — though not greatly, know- 
ing Roosevelt's versatihty — to hear him expound- 
ing a theory of athletics and illustrating it by 
naming and describing a half-dozen of the leading 
American athletes, — college football players, pro- 
fessional pugihsts, and the like — and maintaining 
broadly that race ancestry was but a slight factor 
in athletic eminence. 

There were two leading ideas in Assistant Sec- 
retary Roosevelt's mind during his brief occupancy 
of his desk in the Navy Department. One was 
the idea — or better, the sound practical idea — of 
raising the fighting efficiency of our nation's naval 
equipment to a point commensurate with the re- 
sources and the need of the nation. The other idea 
was a certain prescience regarding the logic of 
current events. Mr. Bishop in his biography says, 
"Roosevelt saw clearly what men would do, be- 
cause he had accurate knowledge of and calm judg- 
ment upon what men had done." This, however, 
was only half the truth. Roosevelt's knowledge 
of men was increasing each year ; but beyond that 
he had wonderful insight, a power to forecast 
events — when he put aside his emotions — which is 
more than mere accumulated knowledge can give. 
Some minds are cisterns, and others are fountains. 
Roosevelt's was of the latter kind. No cistern- 
mind can prophesy. It can only hold facts. The 



140 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

fountain-mind gives forth what we never saw it 
take in. It is creative, inspired. 

Admiral Dewey, in his Autobiography, speaks 
of Roosevelt's "singular understanding both of the 
importance of preparedness for war and of striking 
quick blows, in rapid succession, once war was 
begun." This "singular understanding" comes 
close to the truth of Roosevelt's mental processes, 
in any field where he was occupied. In the then 
situation he scented war with Spain. Affairs in 
Cuba, Spain's dependency, were becoming unbear- 
ably inhuman. And Roosevelt, always contemptu- 
ous of ostrich methods, faced them at their full 
value. 

Admiral Dewey might easily have been preju- 
diced in Roosevelt's favor by the fact that it was the 
Assistant Secretary of the Navy who had assigned 
to him that strategic position in the Far East 
which made possible the prompt and decisive blow 
dealt by Dewey at Manila. The equipping and 
preparing of Dewey's ships at Hong Kong was 
ordered by Roosevelt quite without authority from 
his chief. Secretary Long, and was really a ven- 
turesome act on the Assistant's part. But he 
foresaw events and anticipated needs. And later 
his chief was by no means regretful that this early 
initiative had been taken. 

Then came the sinking of the United States 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 141 

battleship Mairie in Havana Harbor. And in the 
twinkHng of an eye the gates of the Temple of 
Janus flew open. We are not told, in Greek tra- 
dition, much about the architecture of that martial 
structure, but — so far as this country and Theo- 
dore Roosevelt were concerned — it had a porch. 
The office of the Secretary of the Navy was that 
porch; and only a step was needed to carry the 
young Assistant into the interior of the Temple. 
Even if he had been president of the American 
Peace Society or had been taking a vacation in 
Kamtchatka, he would have heard that explosion of 
the Maine and would have flung his hat into the ring. 
As he was situated, enlistment was easy and 
inevitable. Friends advised against it, but in vain. 
Doubtless most of them afterward concurred in 
John Hay's opinion. In 1898 Hay wrote to 
Roosevelt, from London, "I am afraid I am the 
last of your friends to congratulate you on the 
brilliant campaign which now seems drawing to 
a close. When the war began, I deplored your 
leaving your place in the Navy where you were 
so useful. But you followed your own daemon, 
and we older fellows must confess that you were 
in the right. As Sir Walter wrote, 

'One crowded hour of glorious life 
Is worth an age without a name.' " 



142 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

One of the last acts of Roosevelt as Assistant 
Secretary of the Navy appeals to me because it 
carries with it that little atmosphere of humor 
which he himself always breathed with delight. It 
seems that two prominent members of Congi-ess, 
representing a certain Atlantic State, became 
nervous about the exposure of that seaboard State 
to possible attacks from Spanish warships. They 
had been worse than lukewarm about building up 
the navy, as Roosevelt had desired, but now they 
demanded a warship for their State's protection. 
They asked for that ship from the Assistant Sec- 
retary, and getting no response, they "became a 
permanent committee", Roosevelt writes, "in at- 
tendance upon the President. President McKin- 
ley, considerate and kindly always, told Roosevelt 
to send a warship. And Roosevelt did so. He 
says that he sent one of the old Civil War monitors 
to the city named. Ancient, useless, even dan- 
gerous to all on board. He had it towed by a tug 
to the proper station. A hazardous trip, he says, 
for the twenty-one naval militiamen on board. 
"Joy and peace settled upon the senator and con- 
gressman. Nobody seemed to grasp the fact that 
the worn-out, obsolete old craft would have been 
no more effective, for protecting the city, than one 
of the ancient galleys of Alcibiades." 

Roosevelt's friendship with Leonard Wood had 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 143 

already begun. The two young men had met 
socially at a dinner party given by the Lowndes 
family. They had walked home together that 
evening, and they learned that they were fitted to 
be friends. Roosevelt had first heard about Wood 
ten years before, because of Wood's astonishing 
and successful campaign against the Apache chief- 
tain, Geronimo. Now the two young men, magnif- 
icent types of American manhood, came intimately 
together. Together they walked and talked, day 
after day. And their views about the impending 
war were, as one. So openly did they express 
themselves about the duty of the United States 
toward harassed Cuba that kindly, cautious Presi- 
dent McKinley and others spoke of them humor- 
ously as "The War Party." And when the 
President met Wood — his family physician at 
that time — he sometimes asked, "Have you and 
Roosevelt declared war yet," and the prompt reply 
came, "No, but we think you ought to." 

When the declaration of war came, the joint 
purpose of these two friends was furthered greatly 
by the fact that Wood was the family physician 
of General Alger, Secretary of War. This inti- 
mate relationship gave him easy access to that 
Cabinet official and gained for himself and Roose- 
velt that prompt attention to their plans which 
cleared their path into the Cuban campaign. 



144 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

When Roosevelt was offered by the War Secretary 
a colonelcy in one of the cavalry regiments then 
being raised, he declined it, saying frankly that he 
was not fitted for it, but would be glad to serve as 
a lieutenant colonel under Wood. Then he added, 
with a continuation of the same frank speech, that 
he believed he could fit himself for a full command 
in a few weeks. And subsequent events justified 
his estimate of his own powers. 

The "Rough Riders." Never in history was 
such a company of men gathered together. Drawn 
by the fame of the two leaders, men from all the 
divers walks of American life eagerly applied for 
membership. Every live young man who had ever 
been associated with Wood or Roosevelt longed to 
be enrolled in the unique First United States Vol- 
unteer Cavalry. But that was a long name; and 
a shorter one, one that would flow lightly from the 
tongue, must be provided. I have heard Roosevelt 
express his growing anxiety, at that point of time, 
as the fertile quill-drivers of the press put forward 
suggestions. "All kinds of names broke out in 
the newspapers. I knew that some kind of a nick- 
name would eventually supplant our long official 
title. But which one? I remember 'Teddy's Ter- 
rors' and 'Teddy's Terriers', and there were many 
others. But when somebody started 'Rough Rid- 
ers', that struck me as being pretty good. We 




TnK rtnr(;n iuder: from fi-xch, loxdox. 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 145 

could hardly hope for a better." Then, in accord 
with his inborn tendency to "do something about 
it", he started telegraphing and telephoning. "I 
made the wires hot, for an hour or two, in various 
newspaper offices. And the result was that 'Rough 
Riders' stuck, and will be permanent and ade- 
quate." 

When Leonard Wood and Theodore Roosevelt 
got into teamwork together, results were assured. 
The two men trusted each other profoundly. They 
were equally sincere and determined. Tempera- 
mentally they complemented each other, Wood 
being rather reserved, not talkative, but an ap- 
preciative listener to eager, resourceful, expressive 
Roosevelt. In the cutting of the red tape of official 
formality they wielded the shears in turn. Both 
of them hated shams and empty, gilded appear- 
ances and pushed promptly for realities. Most 
people are now familiar with the chain of events 
which led from the mustering-in, at San Antonio, 
to Tampa, Daiquiri, El Caney, Las Guasimas, 
and San Juan Hill. To my mind the deeper in- 
terest which pertains to these exciting events is the 
informing light which they throw on Theodore 
Roosevelt's character. First of all stands out his 
inexhaustible energy as he strove for equipment 
and necessaries of life — the military life — in time 
of war. Roosevelt had served three years in the 



146 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

New York National Guard, and that experience 
was invaluable to him. He knew what he wanted, 
what his command needed. And he and Leonard 
Wood strove, in season and out of season, against 
official inertia and incompetence, to get their won- 
derful, conglomerate organization of cowboys, 
ex-policemen, college graduates, and veteran In- 
dian fighters into the center of the conflict. They 
broke a few musty old rules and regulations, but 
they "arrived." 

In the record of Abraham Lincoln's life the 
points over which the reader lingers with most 
interest are those where strength blends with ten- 
derness in that great man. Similarily, in Roose- 
velt's record, we now take for granted the causal 
connection of events which runs like a skeleton- 
frame through the rich body of events in Cuba, and 
dwell delightedly upon the touches of tenderness 
and humor which overlay his inner, stern intention 
and highly wrought purpose. 

One of the best of these very "human" incidents 
has been somewhat garbled by reporters and 
authors, but, condensed from Roosevelt's own na- 
rative, it reads thus: 

"One of my men, an ex-cow-puncher, did not 
grasp the military principle that he must obey not 
only his own officers but officers of other regiments. 
One of the transport officers gave him some order 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 147 

and he did not obey. Then the officer told him he 
was under arrest. Whereupon my man offered to 
fight him for a trifling consideration. Brought 
before a court-martial, he was given a year at hard 
labor and a dishonorable discharge. The Major 
General in command approved the sentence. 
There was no guard-house to put him into, so a 
fellow soldier, also an ex-cow-puncher, was put 
over him as guard. 

"This all happened on the transport, going over 
from Tampa. When we landed and he was told 
that he would be kept back with the baggage and 
not allowed to get into the fight, he came to me in 
great distress. 'Colonel,' he exclaimed, 'I can't 
stay out. Only let me go to the front and I'll obey 
anybody you tell me to.' 

"So I said to him, 'Shields, there is nobody in 
the regiment more entitled to be shot than you are ; 
and you shall go to the front.' 

"His gratitude was great. 'I'll never forget 
this,' he declared. Nor did he. When we got very 
hard up, he would get hold of some flour and sugar 
and would cook a doughnut and bring it to me and 
watch me with delight as I ate it. He behaved 
extremely well on the fighting line. So I had him 
brought before me, formally, and I remitted his 
sentence, which I had no real authority for doing, 
but it seemed natural and proper. 



148 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

"When the mustering out came, the Command- 
ing Officer asked where my prisoner was. 'What 
prisoner?' I asked. 'The man who was sentenced 
to hard labor and a dishonorable discharge', h^ 
replied. I said, 'I pardoned him.' 'Oh, you did!' 
was his sarcastic exclamation. Then I realized 
that I had exceeded my authority. But I answered, 
'Well, I pardoned him, anyhow; and he's gone 
with the rest.' Whereupon the officer sank back 
in his chair and remarked, 'He was sentenced by 
court-martial, the sentence was approved by the 
Major General, and you — a Lieutenant Colonel 
— pardoned him. Well, that was nervy. That's 
all I've got to say.' " 

Regarding Roosevelt's courage, during those 
fighting days along the heights in Cuba, there 
could be only one thing said. Indeed, it goes with- 
out saying that he knew no fear; indeed, let it be 
always remembered that he loved the fray, he re- 
joiced in the conflict, he lived more exultantly than 
during any other hours of his eventful life. He 
fought, like the "Happy Warrior" that he was, 
because of the righteousness of his cause. Always, 
to his mind's eye, there was present to him the 
memory of Spanish atrocities which he was fighting 
to annihilate. The cruel oppression of General 
Weyler must be put down. A helpless, outraged 
people in towns and "concentration camps" must 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 1^9 

be rescued. And that purpose nerved his arm, 
making him the human champion of divine right 
and truth. 

He was a brave man. Note also that he had not 
only physical courage, but that other kind, moral 
courage, which sometimes has been lacking in men 
who have defied death in battle. When the need 
came for a remonstrance to be sent to lethargic 
officialdom at Washington, when somebody there 
in that victorious but fever-smitten and dying army 
was looked for by General Shafter to dare to write 
plain words to the red-tape-bound bureau at Wash- 
ington, the man selected by Shafter was Colonel 
Roosevelt. And he dared it. The letter was writ- 
ten, and also the famous "Round Robin" was sent. 
Orders for debarkation soon came, and thousands 
of soldiers' lives were saved largely because Theo- 
dore Roosevelt dared. 

Another situation where a feebler man would 
have hesitated and done nothing, but where Roose- 
velt dared, was that where he was leading his eager 
men up toward the San Juan Ridge. He wished 
to force the fighting, of course. And he came up 
behind a line of Regulars who were waiting for 
orders. "'Why don't you charge?' I asked. The 
reply came from the Regular Commanding Officer, 
'No orders, yet.' Then I said, 'I'll give the orders.' 
But he was cautious and reluctant. Then I said. 



150 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

'You open up and let my men through.' Which 
was done. And the younger officers and enlisted 
men of the regulars sprang up and followed us, 
and we went up the hills with a rush." 

His influence with his men, as a body and as 
individuals, was tremendous. The late Judge 
Knowlton, Chief Justi-ce of the Massachusetts Su- 
preme Judicial Court, said to me soon after Mr. 
Woodrow Wilson's election to the presidency, 
"He is a man of ability and determination; but I 
think we must not expect the highest things of him." 
But Theodore Roosevelt's regiment and the whole 
nation were learning "to expect the highest things 
of him." And he never failed them. The high and 
heroic duties he always welcomed. He shared the 
hardships of the march, he led his men into the 
thickest of the fight, he gave them himself, in abso- 
lute sympathy and devotion. And the many 
anecdotes which came out after the war of his 
affection for those then mustered-out veterans of 
the Cuban campaign — humorous, indeed, some of 
them — simply revealed how the hearts of the men 
and their commander had been welded indissolubly 
together in that furnace of privations and perils 
at Guasimas and San Juan. 

The man's frankness shines out clearly in his 
own plain words, as he wrote them. He says, "I 
was not satisfied with that Guasimas fight. I had 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 151 

moved my men this way and that, as best I could, 
but I could get no clear knowledge of the exact 
conditions and needs of the situation. After it 
was over, seated with Generals Wheeler, Lawton, 
and Chaffee, they expressed appreciation of my 
leadership. I was really expecting disapproval; 
but I took their approval as coolly as I could, and 
concealed the relief I really felt." 

We heard many commendatory things said, in 
the recent World War, about the unique, effective 
"morale" of the French armies. Officers and men 
fraternized, yet discipline was maintained. That 
problem of morale was solved in a similar way by 
Colonel Roosevelt in the Spanish War. His per- 
sonality was such that he was on close terms with 
his enlisted men, yet his word was law. Respect 
for his courage, intelligence and sympathy was 
what did this, — the sympathy not least of the three. 
Afterward, when Roosevelt was Governor of New 
York, he took a trip through the West, and at 
one of the stations, a big, bronzed cowboy boarded 
the train. Roosevelt recollected him, shook hands, 
and said to a friend beside him, "This is the very 
man I was just telling you about." The smiling 
cowboy asked, "Telling him about Santiago?" 
"Yes." Then the man turned to the interested 
friend and said, "Well, maybe he didn't tell you 
about that night when we was lying out in the 



152 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

trenches, soaked through with rain, and he came out 
of his tent and gave me his blanket? And maybe 
he didn't tell you how he took off his poncho and 
gave it to another fellow?" Roosevelt tried to 
recall it. "Did I really?" he rejoined. "Did I do 
that? I'd quite forgotten it." 

But the enlisted man had not forgotten it. Few 
of those men did. Their leader became their ideal 
and idol; and intense was the worship which they 
— even to this day — offer him and his memory. I 
have received several communications, during the 
writing of this book, from veterans of the Rough 
Riders. One of these is so delightful, so distinctly 
an "original contribution", that I gave it verbatim. 
Not alone what the writer says, clearly and with 
affection, but what he implies, often unconsciously, 
is of interest. Reading between the lines brings 
out subtle meanings. 

Buffalo, N. Y., Sept. 28th. 
My dear Mr. Gilman: 

I am sure I would be pleased to comply with 
your request of saying something big and good of 
the man that is gone, but not forgotten by any of 
the "Boys of his Regiment," as he used to call us. 
In speaking of us in Camp, or on the march it was 
his saying, "Bully, my boys!" He always spoke 
of us as his "Boys'' and he certainly was proud 
of his Regiment, and on those charging drills of 
which he loved to see good horsemanship, and if 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 153 

any of the troopers got unhorsed he would smile, 
and remark, "That was a Bully throw, are you 
hurt any?" and then pass it off with a thorough 
Roosevelt laugh, for he loved the serious part, as 
well as the test of man, with beast. He loved the 
rough and ready, and how he loved to see the Cow- 
boys straddle bucking horses. After drills, the 
Boys of the Regiment would start those stunts, and 
he certainly was a first grand-stander for all that 
sort of horse sport, our Regiment against any other 
outfit, as he knew he could rely on his "Boys" to 
turn the trick on any horse living. When he would 
pass us, while we were at mess or play, we would 
hail him with, "Colonel, won't you have a bite with 
us?" He would stand for a second, meditating 
what to say, and with a big broad grin, say, "Cer- 
tainly, my Boys." And then and there we would 
fix him some of our good solid 1898 Grub, and on 
a tin plate. He would stand and certainly eat and 
enjoy it with us, and then say, "It tasted fine. 
Boys," and walk off as pleased as a school-boy, 
for he knew we all loved him. 

Just before being mustered out of service of the 
Rough Riders, and the boys feeling good and in 
prime condition, thinking of Home, there came 
to camp a lot of those smarty gentry from the city, 
called Jewelry Fakers of the smallest and lowest 
types, to foist off phoney two-dollar watches on the 
boys, ready to leave for their homes in the West. 
The biggest part of our Troopers were Cow-boys, 
and wished to bring home some souvenir, and es- 
pecially a gold watch and chain, as they thought, 
at a bargain — from five to ten dollars a piece, 
when they actually were only worth one dollar, 



154 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

price cut. I sauntered over to see what was going 
on, and one of these chaps was doing a land office 
business with his cheap and phoney snide jewelry. 
I spoke up and said, "Boys, you all have bought 
watches, and got fooled badly. Now to prove it. 
He is under arrest and in my charge. We will 
proceed to give him a general camp court-martial, 
under the rules of Roosevelt's Rough Riders, at 
this present day and hour." So we placed him on 
a soap-box. The boys all around camp flocked 
over to see what the rumpus was about, for Roose- 
velt's boys were ever on the alert for any fun. 
Well, after telling the man of what he was charged, 
of course I made it as strong as I could. He was 
quickly found guilty of defrauding the Rough 
Riders, and separating them from their hard- 
earned U. S. dollars, and he was to be "tossed up 
skyward in a real horse blanket by those basely 
defrauded boys of the West." I gave the word 
and the Cowboy yell to let him have his medicine. 
He got down on his knees, with hands uplifted as 
though he was going to his death. A blanket was 
brought in, and every inch of it was held by them 
for the toss. He was grabbed no gentle way, and 
heaved into the blanket, and such hollering! He 
went up in the air like a rocket, time and time 
again, with the delight of the boys, and you can 
imagine every time he went up, out came things 
from his clothing, such as phoney watches, rings, 
and the cheapest kind of jewelry, and the boys' 
hard-earned money. 

When nearly through with him. Col. Theo- 
dore Roosevelt happened to look over to see what 
all the yelling was about, and I suppose he thought 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 155 

of fighting and started over. I said, "Hold fast, 
boys. I will tell and explain all to him when he 
comes." So we still kept it up. One — two — 
three — and up he flew again. "Attention!" I said 
to the boys, and as they stood, all laughing and smil- 
ing, our dear beloved man of all men, Colonel Roose- 
velt, said: "Who tried him?" And they stood pat 
and said, "Tony Gavin." "And was he tried fair?" 
"Yes, sir." "that's fine. Bully for you, Tony!" 
He had a big grin on his face, when he sauntered 
away, and we could see him afterwards, telling the 
other oflicers what we did to the jewelry shark. 

So you see he loved to see the witty side, and 
fun of everything. Of course the boys got back 
all of their money, and forgot to return any of the 
loot. The man certainly was glad to get out of 
camp as lucky as he did. And on another occasion 
I had the same task to perform, only that case was 
of selling jewelry to the boys, for their mothers 
and sweethearts, of the rankest sort of snide jew- 
elry and jewels. Those boys, after being away 
from home and to Cuba, wished to bring home some 
little token for them to remember. Well, this 
jewelry fake I ordered to be thrown up skyward 
in a Rough Riders' blanket, and then to be carried 
and flung from the blanket into a horse trough, and 
then escorted to and out of our camp lines with 
machetes behind him never to return. 

That kept those gentry from visiting the Rough 
Riders' domains. And how Colonel Roosevelt did 
laugh when he found out what I did to this indi- 
vidual. "Tony treats them sort of rough, but he 
is right. But the next chap that shows up, of that 
stamp, bring him before me," he said, "and I will 



156 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

place him in the guard house for invading govern- 
ment property, and have him drummed out of 
camp, as an example." 

But we could not see it that way, for I would 
rather court-martial them and have the sport, and 
then have our dear beloved Colonel Theodore 
Roosevelt have a good big hearty laugh over it. 

At JNIontauk Point, where we were mustered out 
of service. President JMcKinley came to see our 
Regiment of Rough Riders, and for his edification 
Colonel Roosevelt had his regiment mount and pass 
in review, and the bugler sounded halt. Then 
Roosevelt gave the order to charge as if in battle, 
and you know how those boys could ride a horse, 
and those Indian yells, and shooting as if in actual 
battle towards the Spaniards. He wheeled to- 
wards President INIcKinley, and said, "Now, Presi- 
dent, what do you think of my Boys and my 
regiment?" "Splendid! Grand, Colonel!" And 
indeed Roosevelt was pleased, and the troopers put 
life and vim into that last reviewing charge of the 
famous 1st U. S. V. Cavalry, Roosevelt's Rough 
Riders, at Montauk Point. 

There was something strange about Roosevelt. 
He never forgot a face once he saw it. If he liked 
you, you was his friend. If he disliked you, you 
had better steer clear of him. He abhorred a 
cringeing man. One that would stand up squarely 
and talk right out, he admired, and would pat you 
on the back and say, "Glad to see you." He knew 
every member of his Regiment by name, and their 
occupations, and he would give them good advice. 
We presented him with a large bronze bucking 
broncho, made by Fred Remington, on his leave- 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 157 

taking. We made a circle and he certainly made 
a fine speech to us, and hoped the boys would lead 
a clean, upright life, as good American citizens, 
and he certainly did cry, for his big manly heart 
was full at his leave-taking of his old Regiment 
of Rough Riders, 1898. 

Yours respectfully, 

Tony Gavin, 
Formerly of Troop C, 1st U. S. V. Cav. 
Roosevelt Rough Riders. 

Gavin speaks of the sound advice given by his 
beloved Colonel in his farewell speech. Which 
leads me to offer this bit of analysis of Roosevelt's 
character. He did give a great deal of ethical ad- 
vice. And it was sound, pure, noble advice. He 
really did a great deal of what might be called 
"preaching", if we were ironically disposed so to 
express it. And I venture this point of interpre- 
tation of his character: That he, knowing that he 
did this and knowing that the world usually as- 
sociates such "preaching", such enunciations of 
"Sunday-school talk", with milk-and-water men, 
mollycoddles, and realizing this, deliberately cul- 
tivated, often conspicuously, the rough, vigorous, 
almost pugilistic manner and speech which is popu- 
larly associated with virile, unsentimental manhood. 
Indeed, he avows practically this purpose in two 
or three places in his Autobiography. His ex- 
plosive "Bully" and some other expressions were 



158 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

more or less camouflage to protect his fine, sensi- 
tive idealism. 

Something similar might be said of his full, 
whole-hearted laughter. There was a bit of "pro- 
tective coloration" in it. But a real point of char- 
acter interpretation I raise when I say that in all 
his relations with all kinds of men, his sense of 
humor and his expression of it, by witticism or 
laughter, helped him greatly to form friendly ties 
with associates. This was especially true in the 
critical, exciting days of the Cuban campaign. If 
you can get a man to laugh with you, you have 
won him. And, if you laugh with him, you prob- 
ably are close to a handshake with him. 

Roosevelt had keen humor perceptions, intel- 
lectually, and had also that sensitive nerve system 
which easily explodes in laughter. In fact, grop- 
ing, as I have done, for the secret of his phenome- 
nal nerve-recuperative power, I am inclined to see 
in Roosevelt's free and frequent relaxing laughter 
a partial explanation of his conservation of cor- 
poreal nerve-tone. The records of the campaign 
in Cuba abound in humorous incidents. In his 
volume, "The Rough Riders", he quite corroborates 
what some of his soldier-associates have told me. 
He shared everything he could with them, even 
the humor. But some of the most ludicrous things 
came to him — socially trained as he had been — 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 159 

only by his reading between the lines of their words 
and actions. For example, speaking of the infrac- 
tions of military etiquette which were inevitable 
among such wild, untrammeled spirits as were 
most of the enlisted men, he says: "The lapses into 
which they fell, at times, were merely those of 
inexjDerience. When Holderman, in announcing 
dinner to the Colonel and three Majors, genially 
remarked, 'If you fellers don't come soon, every- 
thing'll get cold', he had the best of kindly inten- 
tions; and he was glad to modify his form of ad- 
dress when told that it was not strictly in line with 
the best military code." 

Broad-minded cosmopolitan that he already was, 
Roosevelt saw clearly the comparative values of the 
human qualities around him. It really "delighted" 
him when one of the new recruits came up to him 
and poured out the following honest statement. 
"Colonel, I want to shake hands and say we're with 
you. We didn't know, at first, how we'd like you 
fellers; but you're all right, and we're with you. 
You can count on us." 

Perhaps the best of all the little "touches of 
human nature" that "make the whole world kin" 
is the one which Roosevelt records: 

"The Colonel and I strolled out, near midnight, 
to get the air. The sentinel near our tent was 
fighting the vicious mosquitoes. I saw him pitch 



160 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

his gun ten feet off and sit down to get at such 
pests as had swarmed up his trouser-legs. Glanc- 
ing in our direction, he discovered us, nodded 
pleasantly, and with unabashed and friendly feel- 
ing, remarked, 'Ain't they bad!'" Nothing more 
delightfully intinie than that in French Army 
annals. 

The sympathy which the Spanish War devel- 
oped between the Rough Riders and their devoted 
"Colonel" never died out during Roosevelt's life, 
and it led to many touching incidents, grave and 
gay, in later years, which may be properly termed, 
in medical nomenclature, sequelce. Often during 
his occupancy of the White House, veterans of 
that splendid organization appealed to him as 
confidently as to their own brother. It is said that 
Congressman Grosvenor sought an audience one 
day at the White House and was denied admis- 
sion. "The President is engaged," said the page. 
"Who is in there?" demanded Congressman Gros- 
venor impatiently. "Oh, one of his old Rough 
Riders, I think." And the angry Congressman, 
blending his vexation with a saving sense of humor, 
exclaimed, as he turned away, "Then there's no 
hope for me. A mere Congressman doesn't stand 
any chance at all against a Rough Rider." 

There is another of these unique appeals which 



THE HAPPY WARRIOR 161 

is already — and will perhaps remain for all time 
— a "classic." In Roosevelt's own words, thus: 

"Among the many letters which I received from 
men of my old regiment came this: 'Dear Colonel: 
I write you because I am in trouble. I have shot 
a lady in the eye. But, Colonel, I was not aiming 
at the lady. I was aiming at my wife.' That 
excuse he evidently regarded as a sufficient one, 
between 'men of the world.' But I wrote him that 
I drew the line altogether at shooting at ladies." 

One incident, which I have seen in garbled form 
in print, has been given me coiTCctly by an eye- 
witness, my classmate and Roosevelt's classmate, 
the late Vanderlyn Stow, of San Francisco. 
Roosevelt, during his presidency, visited California 
in company with his Secretary of the Navy, Wil- 
liam JMoody. The Bohemian Club of San Fran- 
cisco hoped to get him to come to San Francisco and 
address the club. Mr. Stow saw that this was 
asking too much, for it would establish a bad 
precedent. But he yielded — being president of the 
club — to his fellow members' urging. He went 
down and met Roosevelt at JNIonterey. The three 
men lunched together. Stow preferred his request, 
in a perfunctory way, with the expected result. 
The general conversation was resumed. Roose- 
velt was in exuberant spirits. Presently he said, 
eyes twinkling mischievously, "Secretary Moody 



162 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

has just accused me of a grave offense. He has 
said that I show favoritism to my old Rough 
Riders, that I put them all into offices." 

He paused; and Moody replied, in that delib- 
erate way which always gave weight to his humor, 
"I think you mistook me, Mr. President. I believe 
I did not say that you put them all into offices, but 
that you put in all who were not already in jail." 
And Stow declared that Roosevelt laughed so 
heartily at the keen rejoinder that he nearly fell 
off his chair. 

Thus comes to an end this chapter on Theodore 
Roosevelt's career at Washington, in the Navy 
Department, and in Cuba as a soldier, on a real 
field of battle. And again I assert that Theodore 
Roosevelt loved fighting in the cause of Right. 
He was the happiest of warriors, as he intimated to 
his intimate friend, Charles Washburn. The 
charge up that San Juan Ridge was the most en- 
joyable episode of his life. 

In closing, I look up at a beautiful bronze bas- 
relief over my desk, portraying in silhouette the 
face of my honored and beloved classmate. And 
across the base of that plate, below the head, I 
read these words quoted from Roosevelt's writings 
and molded lastingly into the metal fabric, — "Ag- 
gressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport 
the world affords." 



CHAPTER X 

GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

When Roosevelt returned from Cuba, and the 
transport steamer was oiF Montauk Point, some- 
body shouted to him from another vessel, "How 
are you feeling. Colonel?" And the reply went 
back promptly, "Disgracefully well." In that 
impulsive reply the sincerity and sympathy of the 
man found spontaneous expression. His saddened 
thought was of his "Boys" — some killed, many 
wounded, and many stricken by fever. And he — 
well and strong. It was a characteristic exclama- 
tion from a tender, generous heart. 

He needed, however, all that health and strength, 
during the struggle before him in his native State. 
The Republican Party of New York needed him 
to prevent its defeat in the approaching guberna- 
torial election. For he, by force of circumstances 
and by his own splendid mihtary record, was "The 
Man on Horseback." In France, after the Franco- 
Prussian War of 1870, George Ernest Boulanger, 
loaded with mihtary honors, returned to Paris. 
And the title of "The Man on Horseback" was 



164 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

given him. It expressed his prestige and power 
gained on the battle field. A far nobler type was 
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt; but the two men re- 
sembled each other for that hour in their popularity 
and influence. 

The Republican Party needed Roosevelt. But 
Senator Thomas C. Piatt, "boss" of the party, was 
"in a strait betwixt two." He desired victory for 
his party, but he dreaded admitting this bold young 
reformer into the inner political circles. Piatt at 
this time was sixty-seven years old, and quite in- 
firm physically; and Roosevelt was thirty years 
old, and physically at his maximum of strength. 
Of him intellectually it must be said that he was a 
growing man, and had not then attained all the 
wisdom and power of his later years. But he was 
practically the most striking personality in the 
country and seemed to Piatt the most promising 
gubernatorial Republican candidate. Regarding 
Mr. Piatt's mental equipment at this period, we 
might use Roosevelt's own caustic words of later 
date: "I could not find that he had a taste for 
anything except politics, and, on rare occasions, 
for a dry theology quite divorced from moral 
implications." 

As soon as Colonel Roosevelt landed, he was 
met by Lemuel Quigg, discreet agent of Senator 
Piatt. Together with Douglas Robinson the two 



GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 165 

men conversed, sitting in Roosevelt's tent. Of 
course the errand upon which Mr. Quigg had come 
was apparent to the three men. Senator Piatt had 
sent him to sound this young Lochinvar, and to 
judge whether he could be trusted, after he got 
the election — which seemed quite sure — to "work 
harmoniously" with "Boss" Piatt, which meant 
giving Piatt his own way in everything he cared 
about and taking what he left. 

During two hours they talked. Quigg clothed 
his anxious inquiries in the usual political cant, and 
Roosevelt gave the plain, unyielding reply that if 
elected he would confer with Piatt and with others 
on the various questions as they arose and then 
would himself decide. Further, he declared that 
he sincerely desired harmony of policy and the 
good of both the party and the State. 

With that message — the best he could extract 
from Roosevelt — Quigg went back to Piatt, the 
campaign was soon on, and the young reformer, 
fresh from Cuban victories, went up and down 
the State in a whirlwind campaign, enjoying it all 
to the full, and gaining supporters every time he 
spoke. Jacob Riis and other admirers shared in 
the toil and the delights of the campaign. Riis 
records that one ardent cowboy Rough Rider, 
"Buck" Taylor, speaking at a rally, exhorted his 
hearers to "Poller ma Colonel! Poller ma Colonel! 



166 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

An' he'll lead you, as he led us, like lambs to the 
slaughter." Cautious, anxious Thomas C. Piatt, 
professional politician, gave him a half-hearted, 
hopeful support. He said afterward, "Roosevelt 
made a dramatic campaign. He fairly pranced up 
and down the State. And he called a spade 'a 
spade' and a crook 'a crook.' " 

Early in the campaign Roosevelt showed 
strategic acumen. The Democratic candidate. 
Judge Van Wyck, was a man of good character 
and capacity, and he was not much open to attack 
personally. But his political lieutenant, Croker, 
"Boss" of Tammany, was a man of inferior grade; 
"a powerful and truculent man" Roosevelt calls 
him. The young reformer attacked Croker, drew 
him into the open, and there made his fight, show- 
ing the "Boss" up as the real and corrupt leader 
of the Democratic forces. It was an easier, more 
definite contest, thus, than it could have been 
against Van Wyck. 

The result of the campaign was that Roosevelt 
was elected, but by only the narrow margin of 
eighteen thousand plurality. One reason for the 
narrowness of this margin was that the more ex- 
treme "Independents", so called, stood out against 
Roosevelt. They were men of the academic type, 
with high, vague aims and a narrow range of per- 
ceptions and sympathies. The trenchant — and 



GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 167 

somewhat heated — description of them given by 
Roosevelt was that "their 'Independence' con- 
sisted of one part moral obliquity and two parts 
mental infirmity." They demanded of him that he 
defy Piatt in good, old-fashioned, stage-drama 
fashion. They had not the breadth of mind to see 
that he was trying to get all the help he could from 
Piatt and the professional politicians of the party, 
corrupt though they might be. This was his wise, 
fruitful policy throughout his term of office. As 
a discerning friend wrote about him, "He did not 
intend to pose on the solitary gubernatorial peak 
of abortive righteousness." 

After his election, one of our classmates asked 
Roosevelt jocosely, "Now, Theodore, what kind 
of a governor are you going to be?" And the reply 
was ready. "I'm going to be just as good a kind 
as the politicians will let me be." That reply re- 
vealed the two factors in his public career which 
now were becoming fixed in his mind and will. He 
determined to push his methods and reforms as 
close up to perfection as he could push them, — and 
still keep the support of the more or less imperfect 
party that elected him. His purpose might be 
described not as a vacuous circle, like that of the 
theoretical, easily shelved "Independents", but as 
a productive ellipse, with two centers, the one 
idealistic and the other practical. 



168 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

A brief description of him I here cite, as given 
by Charles G. Washburn in the course of an elo- 
quent memorial address made in Boston by him on 
October 27, 1920. "What manner of man was 
this whom we honor to-night? A man unlike any 
other man whom we have ever known or read about, 
a character as transparent as a child's, tender in 
his family relations, a faithful friend, — but, when 
roused, in conflict terrible; and, when fighting for 
a great cause, he loved to ride on the whirlwind 
and direct the storm." 

That was the mature man — he was already that, 
at the age of thirty — who was entering the arena 
of New York politics. No wonder that Croker 
raged and Piatt trembled. Coming events were 
"casting their shadows before" — for corrupt poli- 
ticians in both the great parties. 

When once entered upon his duties as Governor, 
Roosevelt put the same energy and industry into 
his work that he had always put into whatever work 
lay before him. In scores of ways he went beyond 
the routine duties of his office and improved and 
reformed existing conditions. That was his fixed 
attitude toward public affairs. He found time — 
resting himself, perhaps — to write his "Rough 
Riders" and "Oliver Cromwell." Looking back 
now at his two years as Governor, we may say that 
his greatest work was shown in four important 



GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 169 

measures which he pushed through. They were, 
first, through the suggestion of Riis, the creation 
of the Tenement House Commission Bill. It was, 
in large measure, a following up and enforcing 
of the sweatshop reform which he had taken up 
when an assemblyman. Second, the office of Su- 
perintendent of Public Works, involving control 
of the State canals, needed revision; and Roosevelt 
revised it. Third, the big corporations who had 
obtained franchises to use public thoroughfares for 
street railways had never shared their profits with 
the People, the Public, who really owned those 
thoroughfares and from whom the corporations 
had obtained the right of way. Roosevelt made 
those companies pay for value received. Then, 
fourth, there was the office of Superintendent of 
Insurance. The man who held that governmental 
position was engaged in various business enter- 
prises which prevented him from being wholly free 
and disinterested in carrying out the duties of his 
office. Roosevelt replaced him with a less involved 
official. 

In all these acts Roosevelt met intense opposi- 
tion, on the part of Piatt and other "bosses", and 
on the part of the corporations and individuals 
whose incomes and honors and peace of mind he 
disturbed. He was clearly aware of the compli- 
cated conditions under which he worked. Mr. 



170 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Hagerdorn, in his excellent "Boy's Life of Roose- 
velt", has put this situation into a succinct para- 
graph. "Roosevelt's struggle was not a simple 
one. He could repudiate Piatt and his confed- 
erates, and win popular applause by doing it. Or, 
he could accept Piatt's dictation and thus secure 
the support of the powerful 'Machine' in his future 
career. If he took the former course, he would be 
unable to execute real reforms in any direction. If 
he took the second course, he would forfeit his own 
self-respect. Seeing this dilemma he took neither 
horn of it. He neither accepted Piatt as 'Boss', 
nor did he repudiate him, wholly. He cooperated 
with him whenever that was possible, and he fought 
him only on fundamental issues of right and 
wrong." 

Thus was made manifest Roosevelt's gi'owth in 
wisdom since the days when as an assemblyman he 
aimed at similar reforms, but aimed at accomplish- 
ing them single-handed and alone. 

The four measures which I have named — re- 
form, essentially — gave him opportunity to put 
forth all that vigor and unyielding determination 
which was in him; in the case of the Ford Fran- 
chise Bill, approved by Roosevelt and disapproved 
by Piatt, the young Governor fought the aged Boss 
and his minions to a finish. He sent an urgent 
message with the Bill into the Legislature; but 



GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 171 

the Speaker, in a rage, tore it up. Again looking 
carefully over the merits of the Bill, Roosevelt 
sent to the Legislature another message, urging 
the passage of this important Bill, and intimated 
that if it were not properly read, he himself in 
person would go to the Assembly Hall and present 
it. That bold stand carried a panic into the op- 
position and they passed the Bill with a rush. 

As I try to analyze and even catalogue Roose- 
velt's extraordinary qualities, the Insurance Bill 
especially draws my attention. In this way. 
Piatt wished the then Superintendent of Insurance 
to be retained. Roosevelt believed that a change 
was needed in that office, and resolved to fight the 
matter through. He went over a little toward the 
Boss by suggesting a man who was Piatt's friend. 
Then he stood squarely on that position. Letters 
passed between Piatt and Roosevelt, each man 
unyielding. It was a deadlock. 

Then came a situation, unique in itself and il- 
luminating as to Roosevelt's character. When I 
was in college, I was indulgently given two hours' 
instruction in the murky, strabismic game of 
poker. The lesson cost me two dollars and sixty 
cents. All the knowledge I now retain concerning 
that unfriendly pastime is a sense of the singular 
factitious power of "bluff." This "bluff" was 



172 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

never better exemplified than in that case of the 
Insurance appointee. 

Roosevelt had determined upon a certain can- 
didate, a reasonably efficient, desirable man, really 
one of Piatt's friends. Piatt demurred and 
warned Roosevelt in so many spoken words that 
it was now "war to the knife." Soon afterward 
a message came from one of Piatt's henchmen, 
asking where he could meet Roosevelt. Roosevelt 
named the Union League Club. Accordingly the 
two met there. The authorized agent of Piatt's 
went over all the ground afresh, trying to persuade 
Roosevelt to put in Piatt's chosen man. The 
dramatic scene might be put into dramatic form, 
thus: 

Platfs Agent: "This is your last chance, Gov- 
ernor Roosevelt. Ruin is ahead of you if you 
continue to disregard Senator Piatt's wishes." 

Roosevelt (shaking his head negatively) : "There 
is nothing to be added to what I have already said." 
Platfs Agent: "You have made up your mind?" 
Roosevelt (firmly) : "I have." 
Agent: "You know it means your ruin?" 
Roosevelt: "Well, we'll see about that." 
Agent: "The fight will begin to-morrow and 
will go to the bitter end. You understand?" 
Roosevelt: "Yes, I understand." (He opens 



GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 173 

the door to go out. As he does this, Piatt's agent 
suddenly calls to him.) 

Agent: "Hold on! We accept. Senator Piatt 
will withdraw his opposition." 

That ended the game. And that it was a real 
game of Poker, with the "bluff" feature strong 
on the agent's part, Roosevelt indicates when he 
says of the interview, with his sense of humor show- 
ing through: "His face, throughout the interview, 
was as impassive and inscrutable as that of Mr. 
John Hamlin, in a poker game." 

This situation was a vital and typical one, in 
Roosevelt's career. He once said to a group of us 
college friends, as he looked back over his public 
career, "Two or three times in my life I have stood 
as with my back to a wall, facing impending and 
probable defeat and ruin, so far as my public career 
was concerned. But in those two or three cases 
the scales of good fortune turned my way. Per- 
haps that is what they sometimes call 'Roosevelt 
Luck.' But it was 'Luck' only in part, at least." 
And he said one day to our Class Secretary, Mr. 
John Woodbury, as the two walked down Park 
Street, Boston, together, "There are some things 
I can do, some I can't do, and some I simply 
won't do." 

That yielding to Piatt, that continuing an in- 
competent henchman of Piatt's in an important 



174 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

office was one of the things "I won't do." And the 
point which I enjoy most, in that temporary break 
with the powerful New York Boss, is the tenacity 
of purpose which Roosevelt evinced. If you had 
seen Roosevelt at a dinner party, or in a group of 
friends, you might have said readily, "A brilliant 
man. But has he got stability and persistence in 
a long fight?" That Insurance controversy with 
Piatt is a sufficient reply. And we are confirmed 
in our affirmation that an important element in 
Roosevelt's greatness was his possession, in a re- 
markable degree, of diverse qualities usually found 
only singly in men. The old saying has it that 
"Take Hold is a good dog, but Hold Fast is a 
better." In Roosevelt's fighting equipment both 
qualities were combined. 

During those joyous two years of his governor- 
ship, the glamor of a growing popular support did 
not blind him to the inherent fickleness of popular 
favor. He looked facts and conditions straight in 
the face and did not delude himself. In a letter 
to his sister at this period, he said, "Just at this 
moment I am on the crest of the wave. But I 
know that after a crest comes a hollow." This 
same figure of speech he used years later, on his 
return from Africa, as he talked at a complimen- 
tary dinner given him at Sherry's in New York 
City. But, even as he did in the gubernatorial days, 



1 



GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 175 

he was earnestly and persistently using every 
means to remain on the "crest" as long as possible. 

He was also steadily pursuing the same method 
of getting through the cordon of inimical poli- 
ticians which hemmed him in and of reaching the 
masses of the people outside, which he followed 
afterward in his Presidency. He called press re- 
porters regularly to his office and explained his aims 
and plans, and counted upon their aid in putting 
him clearly and honestly before the reading public. 
Always his hope of support in his stern reform 
methods lay in the intelligence and morality of the 
body of the American people as against the wiles 
and thrusts of the self-seeking, habitual politicians. 

There is one other significant feature of his 
official life as Governor of New York which should 
not be overlooked. It is his attitude toward the 
enforcement of the statutes for capital punishment. 
Setting aside my knowledge of the facts, I would 
know, from my knowledge of his character, that he 
would believe in punishing by death the commission 
of an act of dehberate, willful murder. Quite as I 
would dare assert — without asking his opinion — 
that he believed in "freedom of the will." Such 
a belief was a component part of his nature, force- 
ful, self-reliant, never self -excusing, but conscious 
of responsibility. Similarly, of capital punishment. 
Such a nature as his — strong in its sense of jus- 



176 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WAKRIOR 

tice, facing fearlessly the whole gamut of human 
motives, low as well as high — such a nature would 
never submerge memories of a dead victim in the 
scented waters of a sentimental clemency toward 
a craven criminal who begged for that boon which 
he had coldly denied another. So, when tender- 
hearted Jacob Riis went to him and besought him 
to commute the death sentence of a certain relent- 
less murderer, he suspended judgment foi* a few 
hours, went over the case anew, then wrote a kind 
but stern letter to Riis, declining to pardon. 
"Whatever I do," he wrote in that letter, "I do 
because, after painful groping, I see my path of 
duty." 

His was a tender heart. As Oscar Straus 
earnestly assured me, "There never was one more 
tender" — but his sense of right was deep-rooted, 
and his perceptions of the need of law-enforcement 
he never lost. He abhorred the graveyard charac- 
ter of our statute books. He believed only in laws 
which "had teeth"; perhaps his own smile — some- 
times cheery, yet again grim and threatening — 
might be said to symbolize this, his strong con- 
viction. 

The term of Roosevelt's governorship now drew 
to a close. Although it had been an almost con- 
tinuous campaign of strategy and strife, he had 
enjoyed it. He said so, in a letter of February 1, 



GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 177 

1900, to Senator Piatt: "In spite of all the work 
and all the worry, I have thoroughly enjoyed being 
Governor." 

One source of his happiness during those two 
strenuous years was the rich, beautiful home life 
that was his at Oyster Bay. In the Executive 
Chamber at Albany he stood- always watchful, 
challenging, like a soldier on guard. Threats 
hovered in the air about him, and snares were 
spread for his feet. He loved that kind of life, 
but it was one of extreme tension. At Oyster Bay, 
on the contrary, love and sympathy encompassed 
him, and- he returned it in kind to wife and children. 
There is a period in the continuity of even the 
happiest and most ideal homes when the forces of 
mutual service and good will are at their maximum. 
In the earlier years of home life, with children 
immature, these forces are less balanced, less 
reciprocal. Loving parents lavish attention on 
n little ones with but little intelligent, commensurate 
i response. Then, as the children reach the ages of 
j four and five years, and thence on to the ages of 
j fifteen and sixteen, there is an increasing unity of 
affection, which fades somewhat after those ages, 
j as boys and girls seek more and more the compan- 
I ionship of their own generation. During that 
j flowering period, the mother and father can give 
j companionship that is wholly satisfying to the 



178 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

young people. After it they must be content to 
step gradually aside, and — still near at hand, not 
afar off — see those young people seek sympathy 
from friends of their own age. 

This is the inevitable course of evolution in the 
normal happy family. And this period came to 
the group at Oyster Bay at about the time when 
the father of the family was also the Governor of 
the State. It lasted through the days of his 
Presidency, and it evolved normally, happily, into 
the period following it, when the father and mother 
gradually gave over their authority and control 
into the hands of the children themselves, now fitted 
by wise training for a self-reliant and self-con- 
tained manhood and womanhood. 

This is the law in all true homes. And at Oyster 
Bay it was really beautifully exemplified. The 
father shared fully and poignantly the interests 
and aims of his children. He shared their laughter 
and their tears. For him, when with them, the 
cares of governorships and presidencies ceased to 
exist. No American home ever was sweeter, truer, 
and nobler than that at Oyster Bay. When 
political enemies searched far and wide, high and 
low, for missiles which they might hurl against 
Roosevelt, they never had a defamatory word to 
offer about his home life. 

Both the mother and the father of that loving 



GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 179 

group were exceptional people. The whole world 
knows now the exalted character of that father, 
but not so many people know the wise, tender 
motherhood which was enshrined beneath that roof. 
With her delicate, reserved nature, she comple- 
mented the impetuous, originative nature of her 
husband. Intelligent, with cultivated tastes, she 
could give the intellectual sympathy as well as the 
warm human affection which he craved, — and 
gave in return. 

That restful heart-satisfying companionship 
which they bestowed, without effort, on each other 
was made evident in many ways ; for example, by 
the way in which they sought, again and again, 
each other's society in walks and drives and boat- 
ing. There was between them the same absolute 
trust and deep content which Mrs. Custer, wife 
of General George Custer, describes in a homely 
and humorous but meaning-full line of her book 
of reminiscences. She shared a considerable part 
of her husband's adventurous military life on the 
Western frontier. And she says in her book, "The 
General declared that he was sure that he really 
loved me because 'he liked so much to have me 
around.' " 

A classmate has said to me again and again, as 
we have recalled and discussed our eminent class- 
mate, "Roosevelt will stand as an example and 



180 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

model before the young and old of this nation in 
more ways, on more sides of his character, than any 
American that we yet know, — without exception." 
I heartily agree, and I point out, apropos of his 
home life, how wisely, how sanely he directed the 
molding of his children's characters. No senti- 
mentality but quick, keen sympathy. No airy, 
unsubstantial fads in education, but intelligent 
observation and the firm application of the psycho- 
logical laws of character building. In the earliest 
years he exacted unhesitating obedience to his own 
wish and word. Then, gradually, as their powers 
of judgment and ratiocination unfolded, he turned 
over to them decision as to their conduct. He 
became, in time, their counsellor, only leaving to 
them the casting vote. He pointed them, more 
and more, to obedience to that truth and right to 
which they saw him obedient. And splendid re- 
sults justified his wise, loving — although some- 
times almost Spartan — code. 

This period — perhaps from 1900 to ICIO — was 
approximately the one in which he wrote his 
"Letters to His Children", that revealing volume 
edited by Mr. Bishop. The book softened the 
hearts and modified the distrustful attitude of 
thousands of people throughout the world. They 
had followed too blindly the lead of Roosevelt's 
enemies, writing and speaking, and had thought 



GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 181 

of him as a fierce metallic war-fanatic. And now, 
as they read those touching revelations of fatherly 
sympathy, they felt assured that they came at the 
real man, affectionate and tender; and they gave 
him — fathers, mothers, friends, readers, the wide 
world over — their approval and regard. 

Those fascinating letters run through a period 
of several years. His intimate interest in the 
affairs of the little people, his sharing of the child- 
ish aims and interests, even his charming, amusing 
pet names, little loving diminutives, give "the 
touch of nature which makes the whole world kin," 
and do reveal, not a new Roosevelt, but a new 
character facet of that many-sided man. 

Much as he enjoyed the pastimes and picnics at 
that ideal home at Oyster Bay, he had enjoyed 
no less the continuous fighting that went with his 
reform work as Governor. For he was not only 
the loving father, the tender husband, the faithful 
friend, — he was also and always "The Happy 
Warrior." 

"Who is the Happy Warrior? — 
He who though thus endued as with a sense 
And faculty for storm and turbulence, 
Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans 
To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes." 



CHAPTER XI 

A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 

When that devout monk and eloquent preacher, 
Peter the Hermit, called upon Christendom, in the 
year 1096, to rescue the Holy Sepulcher at 
Jerusalem from infidel hands, he declared in his 
passionate, persuasive exhortation, "God wills it, 
God wills it!" Many critical historians to-day, as 
they survey the highways of the past, may doubt 
the truth of that asseveration. Yet even among 
the least sympathetic of these critics might be 
found those who would hold that "There's a 
divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how 
we will." 

We come now to a point in Theodore Roose- 
velt's career where — if we anywhere see direct 
divine agency in hman affairs — we must recognize 
its presence. For, at the close of his second year 
as Governor of New York, with a splendid record 
of duty done and reforms accomplished, he and 
his immediate friends desired a certain thing for 
him, and struggled for it — and then events, or an 
overruling providence, blocked the path which he 



A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 183 

had chosen and set his feet in a path which he did 
not desire, but a path which opened out, in the 
unseen future, into a field of national service 
worthy of his extraordinary powers. It was a field 
which very likely would not have opened to him 
had he not arrived at it through the undesired 
path. 

This was the logic of events, humanly speaking, 
as we now look back. Roosevelt desired another 
term as Governor. He wished to continue his un- 
precedented fight for a clear, righteous administra- 
tion of the machinery of government in his native 
State. But Senator Piatt did not wish this; and 
Piatt's official henchmen and the fat corporations 
whom Roosevelt had seriously disturbed likewise 
longed for relief from his keen scrutiny and ir- 
resistible domination. It had been only an armed 
truce between Piatt and Roosevelt through the two 
years of the governorship. Yet the veteran poli- 
tician secretly and within limits was fascinated by 
the gallant young crusader who ever and anon had 
fought him to a standstill in the State arena. 
Roosevelt probably was correct when he wrote to 
Senator Lodge at this period, "I believe that Piatt 
rather likes me, although I render him uncomfort- 
able by some of the things I do." 

For months Piatt had been quietly planning 
what he now, early in 1900, openly expressed. He 



184 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

and his machine declared that for the good of the 
State and the nation, Roosevelt should be put into 
the Vice-presidency. They planned to put this 
active reformer into the most inactive position in 
the Federal Government; in terse, popular par- 
lance, they intended to "shelve him." Or, as one 
facetious observer said, "Piatt wished to be rid of 
him. But he could not 'kick him downstairs', so 
he had to 'kick him upstairs/ " 

Roosevelt distrusted the Greeks, even when they 
brought him gifts. He saw at once the peril which 
this move — this plausible promotion — involved for 
him; and he struggled against it. He wrote letters, 
sent telegrams, and interviewed powerful political 
friends. He recognized the insidious danger which 
threatened his future usefulness more clearly than 
did Secretary Hay, who wrote thus humorously 
but superficially to Henry White, in London. 
"Teddy has been here at Washington. Have you 
heard of it? It was more fun than a goat. He 
came here with somber resolution on his strenuous 
brow to let McKinley and Hanna know, once for 
all, that he would not be Vice-president. And he 
found, to his stupefaction, that nobody in Wash- 
ington, except Piatt, had ever dreamed of such a 
thing. He did not even have a chance to launch 
his nolo episcopari at the Major, who said that he 
did not want him on his ticket, and that he would 



A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 185 

be far more useful in New York. And Root said 
— with his frank and murderous smile — 'Of 
course not — you're not fit for it.' So he went 
back to New York, quite eased in mind, but con- 
siderably bruised in his amour propre." 

That free-hand letter — written quite in igno- 
rance and somewhat out of sympathy — was a 
literary enunciation from the mind of the author 
of "Little Breeches" rather than a judicial opinion 
from the Honorable John Hay, efficient Secretary 
of State. Roosevelt had scented a real danger afar 
off and was struggling blindly to meet it. On his 
return to New York he made his wishes known 
very plainly to Senator Piatt. He even declared 
vehemently that if he could not go before the voters 
of the State as gubernatorial candidate, on his 
record, for another term, he would rather retire to 
private life. Piatt, the wily fox, affected to 
acquiesce in this decision. But his plans had been 
laid and he did not intend to relinquish them. He 
had suffered too severely at Roosevelt's hands to 
allow that ardent young man any open door, or 
half-open door, for a return into the field of State 
politics, now that he was moving out of it by the 
completion of his term of service. 

The Repubhcan National Convention, for nomi- 
nation of candidates, was now close at hand. And 
Piatt, somewhat nervous, intimated that if Roose- 



186 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

velt would not accept the Vice-presidential nomi- 
nation, he, Piatt, would block him in his campaign 
for another term as Governor of New York. That 
was a mistaken move on the senator's part. Roose- 
velt took up the threat and declared to his astute 
foe that if the New York delegation were not in- 
structed to vote for Woodruff as Vice-president, 
he, Roosevelt, would lay bare Piatt's threat before 
the voters of New York. 

But — "the best laid schemes o' mice and men" 
went wrong, as often before. When the Conven- 
tion got "under weigh", and Roosevelt delivered 
the nomination speech for McKinley, the delegates 
made their wishes known by applause, cheers, and 
demands that "Teddy" stand as candidate for the 
Vice-presidency. Roosevelt protested, pled with 
them, and did all he could to push back the over- 
whelming wave of enthusiasm which surged up 
toward him. But his efforts were only Parting- 
tonian in their ineffective results. Almost to a 
man that assembly rose and thundered its lavish 
admiration and its insistent demands. Speeches 
followed and the demands became even more 
inexorable. One man summed up the need. "We 
want a ticket made up of McKinley — a Western 
man with Eastern sympathies — and Roosevelt — 
an Eastern man with Western sympathies." One 
of the delegates expressed the popular emotional 



A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 187 

demand when he declared, "We want a candidate 
we can yell for." It went unsaid that nobody ex- 
pected to "yell" for McKinley, even though he 
might vote for that genial gentleman. 

So Roosevelt yielded and accepted. What else 
could he do? And he was "shelved", as he and 
Piatt thought, although not so directly by Piatt's 
agency as that old plotter had anticipated. But 
"shelved" he felt himself to be. And he was dis- 
appointed and depressed. As he said grimly to a 
friend, "I see no attractive outlook. I shall prob- 
ably end my life as a professor in some small 
college." That was the cloud-shadowed future to 
which this eager young knight-errant looked. But, 
like a Sybilline prophecy, stand the words of one 
of my classmates on record to this day, words 
uttered by him soon after the Philadelphia Conven- 
tion in 1900, "I would not like to stand in Mc- 
Kinley's shoes. He has a man of destiny behind 
him." 

Historic facts justified the implications of this 
forecast. Four times in national history had vice- 
presidents been conducted to the presidential chair 
by that grim usher. Death. Tyler, Fillmore, 
Johnson, and Arthur had been thus advanced, as 
their nominating conventions had not anticipated. 
The last two of these changes had come through 



1 



188 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

the acts of assassins. And on this point history 
was to repeat itself. 

Roosevelt, when once fairly embarked upon the 
national campaign, threw himself into it with all 
his wonted energy. He traveled through twenty- 
four States and made about seven hundred 
speeches. He wrote to a friend, "The National 
Committee have worked me nearly to death." Yet, 
exhausted as he was, he enjoyed it. We are sure 
of that. And what a transformation had come to 
the timid, embarrassed young man of college days 
— gasping after words, inaudible in his articulation 
— now standing before vast audiences and driving 
home his clear ideas and lofty ideals with freedom 
and force! His mental equipment had developed 
through the years; and his exceptional moral and 
emotional qualities needed no augmentation. His 
voice, however, remained throughout his life, as it 
was in his youth, comparatively weak and ineffec- 
tive. In this campaign of 1900 he was accompanied 
by Curtis Guild, later honored Governor of the 
Old Bay State. He of the generous heart and 
diapason voice went as an understudy for Roose- 
velt, who often quite wore his fragile voice to a 
hoarse thread and was compelled to stop speaking. 

There was power in Roosevelt's manner as a 
public speaker, to command and hold attention, 
even when his weak voice and the great size of the 



A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 189 

crowd made him inaudible. A classmate has told 
me that he once stood in a crowd in Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania, and saw Roosevelt in the open air, 
with wagons and trolley cars rattling and clanging, 
hold the attention of fully five thousand people, 
during an address of an hour. 

If they could hear his words, any audience would 
sit or stand spellbound. And even when conditions 
prevented their hearing him clearly, there was such 
fascination and suggestion of power in his face 
and gestures that people stayed and stayed, hoping 
to catch something of the brilliant yet rational ap- 
peals he was making for some upright man or just 
and humane cause. 

In this tour through the country with Curtis 
Guild, men and women everywhere were eager to 
look upon and hsten to the "Rough Rider" and 
"Reform Governor of New York." His pictur- 
esque past and his fearless spirit were well known 
in every section of the country. When people first 
heard him, they were often disappointed during 
the opening sentences. But they soon forgot their 
disappointment in their growing interest in the 
ideas he was urging. He had but few of the 
physical assets and rhetorical arts of the orators. 
Like another great man, Phillips Brooks, he broke 
most of the rules of elocution; it was his earnest- 
ness and sincerity, his courage and also his humor 



190 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

that drew his listeners to him. The speech and not 
the speaker was what held his audience. Yet his 
personality had its charm. It grew upon people 
after they had gone away and recalled him. They 
said to one another that they had never before 
listened to anybody who spoke so simply, forcibly, 
and sincerely as he spoke. 

From time to time incidents occurred, flashes 
of temperament leaped out through the formal 
routine of the schedule and program, which re- 
vealed the intrepidity of the Rough Rider and the 
unflinching defiance of "Boss" Piatt's rival. One 
of the chief issues of the campaign was that of a 
silver or a gold basis for the nation's monetary 
affairs. Denver, Colorado, was a strong "silver" 
center. Roosevelt arrived there, went to the hotel, 
then to the hall, then to the platform, and then was 
introduced. The introduction was not a necessity, 
but largely a formality. Everybody knew him 
from his pictures. He had figured in cartoons, 
favorable or unfavorable, throughout the land. 
The hall was crowded with a curious, eager audi- 
ence, which cheered him heartily. Then came his 
first sentence, clear, succinct, "I am for gold as 
our money basis." At once an uproar broke out in 
that audience, strongly predisposed as it was to 
silver. The confusion increased. The noise gi'cw 
in volume and intensity, — catcalls, fists shaken. 



A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 191 

threats shouted out. The attitude of the crowd 
had altered completely in a moment. 

Through it all Roosevelt stood silent, motion- 
less, upon the platform. His characteristic smile 
irradiated his face. The opposition rolled up 
against him like waves against a rock, and like a 
rock he stood undaunted, immovable. 

He waited until the hostile attack had quieted 
down and his not powerful voice could be heard. 
Then he sent out again his challenge, brief, uncom- 
promising, unafraid, "I'm for gold, just the same." 

It was a splendid assertion of courage and con- 
viction. And that audience recoiled under it as 
under a swift, hard blow. Then their sense of fair 
play, their recognition of his bravery prevailed; 
and their threats turned to applause, their hostility 
to admiration. 

Thus, throughout that tour of campaigning, 
incident followed incident, and the days, although 
exhausting, were joyous days. For when once 
Roosevelt had committed himself to the trip, his 
inordinate love of action was gratified; and he 
forgot for a time his apprehensions about the 
stagnant eddy of the Vice-presidency which he 
was soon to occupy, while the strong currents of 
governmental administration coursed swiftly 
around and outside him. In that unique volume, 
"The Education of Henry Adams", the author 



192 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

wrote, "Roosevelt, more than any other living man, 
showed the singular primitive quality that belongs 
to ultimate matter — the quality that medieval 
theology assigned to God — he was pure act." And 
the reluctant j^oung candidate for the Vice-presi- 
dency forgot his reluctance in the joys of the chase, 
or the game, whichever you call it, and although by 
his earnest, persuasive address he might have been 
said to be weaving the very bonds which were to 
tie him later, yet he wove joyously— as it was his 
nature to — he being, as Henry Adams declared, 
"pure act." 

In every audience, throughout the tour, were to 
be found scores of persons who had read about his 
great public service, or had read his books, or — as 
happened many times — had served under him in 
the Rough Riders. In one city a bucolic-looking 
man, with long, straggling beard, and trousers in 
boot-tops, came up after the meeting and took 
Roosevelt's small hand in his big bony fist. "I'm 
a-goin' to vote f er yer", he announced, with a genial 
smile, "not only because I like yer and what yer 
said, but, yer see, I've got a boy out on the farm 
an' he's read everything you've written. An' he 
sets gre't store by yer; an' I wouldn't jest dass to 
face him if I didn't vote fer yer." 

Always it was true that the nearer people came 
to Roosevelt, or had come to him, the more they 



A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 193 

admired him. At one large town a timid, worn, 
little gray-haired woman crept up at the end of 
the meeting and stood near, looking wistfully at 
him, but not daring to speak to him. Of course, 
seeing her, he went to her and put out his hand. 
She took it and then piped up, in a quavering voice, 
"I used to see you in New York, Mr. Roosevelt. 

In the L H offices. I was scrubwoman 

there when you were Police Commissioner." 
Roosevelt pondered a moment; then he recalled 

her. "Oh, yes, I remember, Mrs. B . I'm 

so glad to see you. And how is little Jack?" The 
proud woman rephed, "Oh, he's fine. He's grown 
up now, gets good pay, and supports his old 
mother." Then Roosevelt turned to a friend at 
his side and exclaimed, "Look at her, the noble 
little mother ! I remember her well, and the faith- 
ful work and her well-brought-up boy. That's 
the kind of stuff our American fabric is woven 
from." 

This tour through more than twenty States 
augmented the public favor which Roosevelt al- 
ready possessed in a large measure. And he was 
not unconscious of this. Perhaps a word may here 
be interpolated as to that ambition which was 
charged against him, at various points in his career, 
by rivals and enemies. Was he ambitious? How 
ambitious was he? 



194 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Several writers, students and critics of this great 
American, have declared that he was extremely 
ambitious. Others have declared that he was not. 
The real truth about him seems to lie between the 
two extreme statements. In his college days, after 
his plans for studying Natural History had been 
balked, and after he had found Blackstone and 
Company dry and distasteful, he tried what we 
call vulgarly "Politics." And he went into that 
field with his heart as wholly and disinterestedly 
devoted to correcting abuses as it was in those 
earlier undergraduate days when he talked with 
friends about reforms in public service. Then, 
when he accomplished so much, almost unaided, at 
Albany, he felt his power. Next, he tempered and 
modified and pooled that power as he fought the 
hard fight in the Civil Service field. Then came 
advancement, step by step, with the people backing 
him. And possibilities of higher and higher pub- 
lic honor — and enhanced public responsibility — 
brightened the horizon before him. His untarnished 
record and his inexhaustible energy were evident 
to others. Recall that prophecy of Baron Speck 
von Sternberg, German attache at Washington. 
Roosevelt and the Baron were good friends. When 
Roosevelt was appointed Police Conmiissioner of 
New York, the Baron wrote him, "I congratulate 
you on this appointment. When I write you 



A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 195 

again, to congratulate you, you will be one step 
nearer the White House." When Roosevelt 
became Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Stern- 
berg wrote him from Pekin, "I congratulate 
you on being one step nearer the Presidency." 
When Roosevelt became Governor of New York, 
the Baron telegraphed him, "The next time I offer 
congratulations, it will be to President Roosevelt." 

I cite that story, taken from William Draper 
Lewis's very readable volume, for what it is worth. 
It argues at least this much; Roosevelt's friends 
anticipated a career of eminence for him. And he 
himself certainly could not be bhnd to this nor 
'dull to the thrill of a normal desire to attain ail, 
in the loyal service of his beloved country, which 
he was worthy to attain. 

All normally constituted human beings have 
ambition in a greater or less degree. Ambition 
is simply one expression of the compelling evolu- 
tionary process which has pushed the human race 
up above the eave-man level. It is essentially 
meritorious. The only debatable issue regarding 
it, is what and how much will an ambitious man 
sacrifice for his ambition. He can creditably 
sacrifice time, effort, wealth, and the like to it. 
But if he sacrifices morality, friendship, honor and 
the like, then and then only is it reprehensible. 



196 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

And all the world knows how Theodore Roosevelt 
stood, in respect to those two paths. 

I sat one day with Doctor Edward Everett Hale 
in his study in Boston. I had come to return some 
autogi-aph letters of Doctor Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, loaned me by Doctor Hale. Believing 
then, as now, in the greatness of my host and friend, 
I put the leading question, "Doctor Holmes was, of 
course, a great man, was he not, judged by even 
the broadest and longest world-standards?" Doc- 
tor Hale replied casually to this banal inquiry with 
a "Yes, oh, yes, he was." Then I asked, "And he 
knew he was a great man, didn't he?" Doctor 
Hale bit at once at my bait, whirled impulsively 
around and ejaculated vigorously, "Of course he 
knew he was a great man. Holmes wasn't a fool, I 
can tell you that." My question about both those 
eminent men was thus answered. And concerning 
Theodore Roosevelt's ambition I have only this to 
say, — that he was not a fool ; he knew himself and 
his unfolding power; and he was ready to accept 
any duty which the American people desired to 
confer upon him, but anxious also was he — as, 
doubtless, ambitious Caesar was not — tremendously 
anxious to fulfill his duties, great and small, with 
earnest, conscientious, patriotic industry and zeal; 
"as in the Great Taskmaster's eye", said Milton. 

The two friends and fellow campaigners, Roose- 



A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 197 

velt and Guild, rounded out their circuit of meet- 
ings in due time and with great success. When 
they returned to the Repubhcan Headquarters at 
Washington, appreciative President McKinley 
invited them to dinner; and in the course of the 
interview, he thanked Roosevelt — who had been 
the chief speaker — for his excellent work and its 
probable results. To which Roosevelt replied in his 
characteristic, generous way, "You can thank 
Curtis Guild, also, Mr. President, for he worked 
shoulder to shoulder with me, and he deserves 
exactly as much credit as I do." 

In the election which came in November, 1900, 
the Republicans swept the whole country. And 
Theodore Roosevelt was slated for a full term as 
Vice-president, beginning with March 4, 1901. 

Certainly, at this point in Roosevelt's career, 
James Bryce's observation did not seem likely to 
see fulfillment. :Mr. Bryce had said in 1899, 
"Theodore Roosevelt is the hope of American 
Politics." And the year 1900 saw Roosevelt con- 
signed to that cul-de-sac in American officialdom, 
the Vice-presidency. 

His term as Governor of New York ended on 
January 1, 1901. Soon after that date he went 
on a hunting trip in Colorado. And there, I have 
no doubt, between perils and among hardships, he 



198 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

looked forward, with more reluctance than ever, 
to the dull four years impending. 

One of Roosevelt's athletic trainers said of him 
in later years, surveying his public career, "He's 
just like a punching-bag. You hit it and it comes 
straight back at you. The harder you hit it, the 
quicker it comes back." And here we note another 
illustration of the resilient "come back" there was 
in him, either against a foe or against an unfavor- 
able environment. Soon after he took up his Vice- 
presidential duties, he called upon Mr. Justice, 
later Chief Justice White and asked his advice 
about the propriety of his attending law lectures in 
Washington, with a view to being admitted to the 
bar after his term as Vice-president had ended. 

Chief Justice White had a delightful sense of 
humor, as keen as Roosevelt's; and I know that 
he must have smiled — at least inwardly — when 
Roosevelt, earnest, unconventional, and threatened 
with boredom, asked his advice on this point. But 
the Chief Justice reciprocated, in spirit if not in 
letter; and generously offered to supply Roosevelt 
with books and to give him a "quiz" every Saturday 
evening. 

However, the plan did not mature. The tragedy 
element which looms behind all our lives here broke 
through, in the lives of President McKinley, Vice- 
president Roosevelt, and indeed the life of the 



A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 199 

nation as well. The bullet of the assassin Czolgosz 
changed all, even altered the course of the world's 
history. 

I once sat in an audience at a theater where two 
plays made up the evening's program. The cur- 
tain rang down at the end of the first play. And 
we sat awaiting the announced second play. But 
unusual noise and clatter behind the scenes puzzled 
us. After unexpected minutes of delay the curtain 
rose, and we saw the stage set for an entirely dif- 
ferent play from the one announced. Later we 
learned that the illness of one of the principal 
actors had necessitated the change and the scenes 
had been shifted in haste and excitement. As I 
look back upon that brief period between Sep- 
tember sixth and September fourteenth, 1901, the 
fancy strikes me that a similar emergency and a 
similar transformation, though vaster in signifi- 
cance, took place. The Vice-president was sum- 
moned from Isle La Motte, Vermont, where he 
had just made an address. He sped to Buffalo, 
where his stricken chief lay helpless. The nation, 
by bulletins, followed the thrilling events. The 
physicians, two days later, gave most encouraging 
reports. Roosevelt went to Mt. Marcy, in the 
Adirondacks. Favorable reports from Buffalo 
came to him daily. Then, on the thirteenth, came 
the unexpected message from Secretary Cortelyou, 



200 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

"The President's condition has changed for the 
worse." Roosevelt was thirty-five miles from the 
nearest railroad station. But he secured a buck- 
board and, with a driver as daring as himself, 
traveled through the darkness of night, with fog 
enveloping, over rough roads, dangerous even in 
full daylight, traveled with speed, changed horses 
several times, and reached the railroad at dawn. 
There he learned from his own secretary, Mr. 
Loeb, that the worst had come. President Mc- 
Kinley had died. Then by train he sped across the 
State to Buffalo. And with but little delay, by 
the expressed desire of the Cabinet, he took the 
oath of office as President. 

Thus the scenes were shifted. Thus the stage of 
the great drama was reset in a fashion not 
dreamed of. 

The "Power not ourselves" was "making for 
righteousness", but in an unexpected way. The 
various prophecies, dimly outlined by admiring 
friends, came to pass. Theodore Roosevelt was 
now President of the United States. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU FIRST HALF 

"The President is dead — may the President 
live!" That is the American democratic transla- 
tion of the familiar Gallic slogan. Genial, wise, 
well-intentioned President William IVIcKinley was 
dead, but the high office continued in the person of 
Theodore Roosevelt. 

The office of President of the United States is, 
presumably, the highest honor which this nation 
offers. I figure it as a plateau. The distance 
across it is the period of four years. Sometimes 
the plateau is a double formation, with eight years 
the distance; then halfway across it stands an inn, 
for a brief night and a relay of horses; then on 
through the remaining four years. 

To reach the various heights in the world, Alpine 
and others, some men toil up long, steep, rocky 
pathways; others climb comfortably up an easy 
grade in cogged-wheel cars, and still others seem 
to be shot suddenly, rapidly upward, to the aston- 
ishment of everybody, including themselves. 

Abraham Lincoln and many others ascended 



202 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

by the first and most toilsome route. General 
Ulysses S. Grant, a military hero, a "man on horse- 
back", was carried up rapidly, yet comfortably, 
by the funicular of popular enthusiasm. While 
Chester Arthur and Theodore Roosevelt were 
hurled to the plateau's summit unexpectedly, 
violently, as volleyed there by an explosion. 

All the wiseacres who, for ten years and more, 
had been pointing out defects in Roosevelt's na- 
ture, now awaited eagerly the full, dark revelation 
of rashness and inefficiency at which they had been 
craftily hinting. And the first shock to their vanity 
came when the new incumbent of the White House, 
with a wisdom worthy of his great forerunner, 
model, and ideal, Abraham Lincoln, at once sent 
forth this message to an anxious nation: 

"In this hour of deep national grief, I wish to 
state that it is my aim to continue, absolutely un- 
broken, the policy of William McKinley, for the 
peace, prosperity, and honor of our beloved coun- 
try." 

The owlish wiseacres and acrid prophets of 
gloom were aghast; and even stanch admiring 
friends admired the more the self-restraint, the 
sagacity of this brilliant young statesman, here 
evincing, as always, his singular blending of diverse 
qualities, his intellectual gi'asp so broad that he 
held at unity in his breast forces, tendencies, which 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 203 

commonly are mutually antagonistic and inhibitive. 

Roosevelt had learned much in his post-col- 
legiate course in worldly wisdom, but much re- 
mained to be learned. He knew his Albany and 
his New York, but he did not know the "Solid 
South." Although his mother was a Georgia 
woman, and two of his uncles had been active in 
the Confederate Cause, he had not realized how 
deeply the roots of racial antipathy extended into 
the soil of the Southland. Now he was to learn 
it, and by harsh experience. The incident which 
illustrates this educative experience of his is not 
given in his Autobiography. 

He continued the plan in the White House 
which he had followed effectively in his previous 
official duties. He consulted experts. He has told 
us that he consulted Senator Lodge, his valued 
friend, on all kinds of questions. On questions 
concerning Panama, Algeciras, Alaska, labor leg- 
islation, "big business", railway matters, — on each 
of these and many others he was accustomed to 
confer with special, competent men. Naturally 
then, as the Negro Problem, sectional yet national, 
thrust itself upon his attention, he wished to confer 
with some man of experience in this field. And 
Booker T. Washington, a negro. Principal of the 
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, was 
unquestionably the leader of his race, a man keen 



204. ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

in mind, rich in experience, and with wide and deep 
influence throughout both white and black races. 
North and South. 

Knowing Theodore Roosevelt as we now do, we 
can see that he was certain in 1901, with his strong 
sense of justice, to become a champion of equal 
rights in the South. But he needed to know more 
fully the situation. And he invited Booker T. 
Washington to dine with him at the White House. 
Doctor Washington, more sensitive than President 
Roosevelt to the inflamed feelings of Southern men 
and women, wrote him a letter and pointed out the 
danger of arousing bitter animosity by such an in- 
terview. Roosevelt, in his large, generous way, 
was disregardful of such minor forces and insisted 
upon the dinner. 

The invitation was accepted, the two dined to- 
gether; discreet Francis Leupp tried to keep the 
dinner a secret, but newspaper reporters ferreted 
it out, and the Southern Press blazed forth in fierce 
denunciation. The President had recently ap- 
pointed two Southern democrats to important 
offices, thus giving evidence of an impartial attitude 
toward the South and the Southern Democracy. 
But this "insult to the white race" made everybody 
south of Mason and Dixon's Line forget all 
equitable office appointments. They seemed to be 
quite unaware that English Victoria — that queenly 



^^ 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 205 

woman and womanly queen — a year before had 
invited Doctor Washington and his wife to tea at 
Windsor Castle. Probably, if they remembered it, 
it caused no lessening of their rancor. 

The excitement died down and quite rapidly. 
Only two years later, in October, 1903, Roosevelt 
received at the White House a deputation of 
I Episcopal bishops and clergymen of eminence; 
among them were two colored clergymen. All 
these, white and black, were received and enter- 
tained by President and Mrs. Roosevelt, with no 
distinction of persons. The usual afternoon tea 
concomitants were shared by all. And no news- 
! paper raised a protest. The world had moved on 
apace. A fickle, feverish world to be sure, in some 
ways inconsistent and factitious in its loves and r | 

I hates, but it had moved, and forward. 
I There was an amusing "Addendum" to the 
Booker Washington incident which is not com- 
monly known. It has been given me by my friend, 
; Matthew Hale, who at that date was a member of 
I the family, acting as tutor for Theodore, Junior, 
I fitting him for college. I quote Mr. Hale's own 

words : 
I "Soon after the Booker Washington affair, 
I early one morning, John Morley arrived from 
England to visit the Roosevelt family, and was 
brought into the dining room just as all were sitting 



"^ 



206 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

down at table. The negro butler was standing 
immediately behind Mr. Roosevelt, Mrs. Roosevelt 
was seated opposite, and the children were scat- 
tered aromid the table. I was at the end of the 
table opposite the door through which Mr. Morley 
entered. The President introduced him to Mrs. 
Roosevelt and to the children, and then said, 'I 
want you to meet Matt Hale.' Morley, who 
seemed at the moment a trifle confused, did not 
notice me among the children at the farther end of 
the table, but did see the negro butler and started 
to shake hands with him, much to the confusion 
and embarrassment of the President. It is the 
only time I have ever been mistaken for a negro 
butler." 

The lesson of his unwise invitation to Booker 
Washington sank deeply into Roosevelt's heart. 
It did not alter in any degree his keen sympathy 
vdth negroes, but it made him more cautious and 
discreet in his support of them. 

This change in his attitude is shown by his treat- 
ment of a post office at Indianola, JNIississippi, in 
1902. A colored woman was postmistress, and 
was efficient. A wave of race hatred sprang up in 
that region, and a mob of white men drove the 
postmistress from the town. This was technically 
a defiance of Federal authority and might have 
been punished severely. Roosevelt did nothing of 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 207 

this sort. As in many other difficult situations, he 
showed originality and resourcefulness, and he 
simply closed the post office, thus compelling the 
citizens of Indianola to travel five miles for their 
mail. 

This episode of Booker Washington's dining at 
the White House, although picturesque, was not 
so vital and immediately fruitful as were many 
other details of my classmate's career, yet to be 
cited. Still, it came to him with a shock, at the 
very threshold of his Presidential term. And it 
appeals to me peculiarly, because I knew Booker 
T. Washington intimately during thirty years. I 
rendered him and his people some little measure 
of ser\^ice, including aid in three ten-day tours 
through the South, when I acted as unpaid pub- 
licity agent for Northern newspapers. I know, 
therefore, somewhat about the difficulties on both 
sides of the troublous, complex "Negi'o Problem." 
And I wish to point out, apropos of the "dinner 
episode", that my classmate, roused to the exigen- 
cies of the problem — then new to him — went at 
once to the heart of the matter. For, in a letter 
written in November, 1901, he included this state- 
ment: 

"The only wise, honorable and Christian thing 
to do is to treat each white man and each black man 
strictly on his merits as a man, giving him no more 



208 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

and no less than he shows himself worthy to have." 
That is a deep, illuminating statement. It is 
adequate and fundamental. It holds as true 
to-day as when Roosevelt wrote it. And it is 
gradually taking precedence, North and South, of 
those vacuous, sterile generalizations about "the 
Black Race" and "the White Race", which seem 
ultimate and definitive to shallow minds, yet take 
us nowhere and shed no light on a difficult national 
problem, yearly growing more exacting and in- 
volved. 

From my intimacy with Doctor Washington, I 
know how close and sympathetic was my class- 
mate's relation to that great leader throughout 
both their lives. When Roosevelt took the Presi- 
dency — and perhaps at that ill-fated dinner in the 
White House — he said to Doctor Washington: 
"Whatever I can do to help }^our people on their 
upward path, that I will do. Feel entirely free 
to consult me at any time." And they did confer 
together, I know. Once, as I sat at table with 
Doctor Washington in his pleasant home at Tuske- 
gee, I remarked, "As I came down on the train 
from the North, I read a report of a speech of 
Roosevelt's at the Union League Club, in New 
York City. I wish I had brought along a copy 
of the paper. You would have been interested in 
his speech. He touched upon the 'Negro Prob- 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 209 

lem', and, as it seemed to me, wisely, sympathet- 
ically." 

Doctor Washington looked at me with a smile, 
then replied in his quiet way, "I went over that 
speech — the part touching the interests of my peo- 
ple — with the President in New York last week." 
Evidently Roosevelt had consulted "original 
sources" before putting forth his views. 

This problem of the negro race in the United 
States was comparatively new to the busy occupant 
of the White House, but he had quickly reached 
the just and sympathetic position, and his action 
ever afterward was taken from this viewpoint. 

The problems of "Labor and Capital", com- 
monly and obscurely so called, were not new to 
him. He had faced them in the Assembly Hall 
at Albany and many times afterward. He was 
too keen a thinker to be satisfied with the old 
academic adage that "The interests of labor and 
capital were identical." They are not. They have 
the one end and aim in common which the employ- 
ers and employed of a factory have, that they shall 
continue operating and making money. But they 
diverge at once when the question arises as to how 
the profits shall be distributed among shareholders, 
managers, running expenses, and hand workers. 
Labor and capital both desire profits in anj^ given 
enterprise. But they differ and are ceaselessly con- 



210 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

tending with each other as to the equable division 
of these profits. 

This rivalry is back of strikes and revisions and 
arbitration conferences. And for many years 
labor and capital, watching Roosevelt's rulings, 
could not satisfy themselves as to how his sympa- 
thies ran. In truth he allowed no sympathies and 
predilections to govern his decisions. He fought 
down the impulsive nature with which he was born, 
and he learned to maintain a wonderful impartial- 
ity in the face of insistent divergent appeals. The 
story is told of a labor leader who had been invited 
to dine at the White House. Seated at the table 
he remarked expansively, "I'm glad that the doors 
of the White House can swing open to a labor 
union man." Instantly Roosevelt made reply, 
"Yes, but they can swing open just as easily to 
the capitalist." 

Thus he maintained his intellectual and moral 
poise. His one aim in all cases, was — putting it in 
trite, homely phrase — to do what was right. And 
his elemental sincerity and honesty puzzled the 
worldlings of the legislatures and the counting- 
houses for many years. 

His official duties ranged from high to low and 
from great to small. One of the most serious 
questions which arose during his seven and a half 
years in the Presidency was that of the Pennsyl- 




COPYRIGHT 190S, 



KOOSEVELT IX THE WHITE HOUSE. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 211 

vania coal strike. In a letter to Senator Lodge, 
after the strike had been settled, he wrote, "We 
are coming out of a situation as dangerous as any 
I ever dealt with." 

I had the great pleasure of hearing him describe 
in detail this complicated experience, at one of our 
class dinners, only a few months after it happened. 
After the dinner was over, in place of the usual 
short speeches, Roosevelt was given the entire time 
and was asked to tell us whatever was on his mind 
and nearest the top in his memory, or what would 
be good for us to hear. So, after a few general 
remarks, he started upon the Pennsylvania coal 
strike. And his earnest, unreserved words made a 
deep impression upon us all. 

First remarking that of course all that he said 
was to be regarded as confidential, he went rapidly 
through that eventful story, telling it with vivacity 
and even gaiety, his humorous vein coming to the 
surface again and again. 

The miners struck, throughout all the anthracite 
tracts of the State, early in the spring of 1902. 
The usual strained relations between miners and 
owners or operators ensued. Little violence oc- 
curred while the warm weather lasted. But, as 
winter came on, alarm increased throughout the 
entire Atlantic seaboard. The need of coal was 
pressing, and still operators and miners would 



212 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

make no concessions to each other. The Mayor 
of Boston, the Governor of New York, and other 
leaders wrote to Roosevelt, setting forth the disas- 
ter that impended, with this deadlock maintained 
in the great coal State. 

Nothing in the Constitution provided for the 
duty of the President in such an emergency. But 
Roosevelt took the position that if the governor 
or the legislature of Pennsylvania appealed to 
him, he could send Federal troops into the State, 
to keep order. But no such request came, the 
deadlock did not loosen, and lawlessness and vio- 
lence increased. A commission, a board of arbi- 
tration, seemed to be the only possible hope, and 
the President urged that. John Mitchell, labor 
leader, agreed to it, but stipulated that the Presi- 
dent should name the members of that board, — a 
marked tribute to the high esteem in which Roose- 
velt was held by the miners. 

The two points in my classmate's graphic nar- 
rative which most impressed me were his angry 
protest against the unyielding arrogance of the 
operators as negotiations for the conference went 
on, and his naive joy at his discovery of the solu- 
tion of the problem. The delegation from the 
owners, or operators, were insolent, no less, and 
offensive in their attitude to both labor leaders and 
the President. For a time no agreement was 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 213 

reached. Several meetings were held, but no ad- 
vance was made. At length, however, the opera- 
tors, rejecting all suggestions from the miners, 
suggested that the President name a commission 
of five men. And they specified the qualifications 
of those men. They would listen to no suggestion 
of Roosevelt's that ex-President Grover Cleveland 
should serve on that commission. They demanded 
that the board should be made up of "One officer 
of the Engineer Corps of the Army or Navy, one 
man of experience in mining, one man of promi- 
nence in sociology, one Federal judge, and one 
mining engineer." 

This was holding a very tight rein over the labor 
unions, who insisted that some distinctly "labor 
man" should be on that board. There the matter 
hung. For a short time only. Then, suddenly it 
dawned upon Roosevelt's mind that those obstinate 
operators were holding back from a mere word. 
He saw that they did not much mind whom he 
named provided only that the man was not tech- 
nically a "labor man." I recall the characteristic 
smile on my classmate's face as he reached this 
point. "I suddenly discovered," said he, "that they 
would accept any man I might name if he could 
be squeezed in under one or another of the classes 
they had specified. Without further delay I 
named the man whom I had all along held in mind, 



214 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

a first-class man, Mr. E. E. Clark. He was the 
'Head of the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors.' 
But I called him 'an eminent sociologist' — a term 
which probably was quite new to him." 

This was the beginning of the end of the porten- 
tous Anthracite Coal Strike in 1902. Adjustments 
were made and a disastrous coal famine was 
averted. 

I am convinced that in the strenuous career of 
Roosevelt, as in that of Lincoln, his exceptional 
humor-sense was a great corrective and alleviation 
of disappointments and anxieties. I myself had 
listened to his witty setting forth of the details of 
the coal strike, so serious in their present reality, 
yet so amusing in their recalling. A letter to "]Mr. 
Dooley" a few days after the strike's settlement 
exhibited the fully play of his humor. Friends 
have told me that when "]Mr. Dooley" began to 
"write up" Roosevelt, the President was somewhat 
concerned about that witty journalistic pen. And 
he managed to get into close friendly touch with 
Mr. Dunne and afterward took chances as to what 
humorous thrusts might be made by him. In the 
letter to ]\Ir. Dunne at this time, Roosevelt wrote, 
"I have not had the heart to write you until this 
coal strike was out of the way. Now I feel like 
throwing up my hands and going to the circus. 
Perhaps I'll try a turkey shoot or a bear hunt in- 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 215 

stead. Nothing that you have ever written can 
surpass, in screaming comedy, the last few confer- 
ences of that Commission." 

There is really a further chapter in that coal- 
strike drama, unwritten and merely potential. As 
I listened to Roosevelt, at that class reunion, noting 
his indomitable spirit, I asked, myself what he 
would have done had his intercessory offices failed. 
I knew that he was not a man to sit idle, bound 
by the red tape of rule and precedent, if worst came 
to worst in disorderly, anarchic Pennsylvania. 
And he has told us what more he held in reserve; 
unknown to most of the parties and factions in- 
volved in the peaceful settlement of the strike by 
commission, Roosevelt had a secret understanding 
with Senator Quay, a leader in Pennsylvania 
affairs, and was prepared, if the need came, to send 
Federal troops under General Schofield, at a half 
hour's notice, declare martial law in the mining 
regions, and compel peace by force of arms. 

The harmonious relations between Matthew 
Quay and Theodore Roosevelt, as intimated by 
this incident, were singular ,and surprising, yet real 
and revelatory. They were certainly very widely 
different types of men. Yet there was a strain of 
nobility common to them which helped to unite 
them. Roosevelt says in his Autobiography that 
soon after he became President, Senator Quay 



216 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

called upon him, and with characteristic frankness 
said, "Most men who claim to be reformers are 
hypocrites. But I believe that you are sincere. 
And I will support you in your administration to 
the best of my ability." "This he did," Roosevelt 
adds. There was always a tacit respect and ad- 
miration between those two fighters. And one of 
my classmates has told me — a slight addition to 
what Roosevelt has modestly written in his Auto- 
biography — that when Roosevelt went to call upon 
Quay, Quay then being near his end and having 
sent for Roosevelt, the veteran politician of Penn- 
sylvania among other things said, "I have asked 
you to come and see me that I might again tell 
you, as I once before told you, how much I respect 

you." 

Recalling this account of the coal strike as given 
us in detail by Roosevelt at our class dinner, I am 
reminded of other incidents of that dinner. I was 
standing near Roosevelt just before we sat down 
to dinner, and one of the members of our class came 
up to him and in a modest, hesitating way, asked, 
"Well, Roosevelt, what shall we call you now?" 
My eminent classmate, friendly and smiling, pre- 
tended not to understand the man's question, and 
replied, "Call me — why, what do you mean?" And 
the man explained. "Why — of course you are 
President of the United States now; and what 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 217 

ought we to call you?" Roosevelt's reply was 
prompt and hearty: "Why, call me just what you 
always called me. If you used to call me 'Presi- 
dent Roosevelt,' you can call me that now. But 
if you used to call me 'Roosevelt,' call me 'Roose- 
velt' now." 

And I recall that as Roosevelt ended his long 
narration of official struggles and perplexities, 
that night at our class dinner, it suddenly occurred 
to him that we might feel that he had simply been 
unloading upon us a long, doleful tale of woe. 
And his face lighted up more than ever and he 
exclaimed joyously, "But I don't want you fellows 
to think I'm sick of my job. I'm not. I like it. 
Yes, and I think I'm equal to it." 

That last sentence was a characteristic burst of 

confidence. He knew that he was indeed equal to 

it. And he said so, with the same boyish frankness 

with which he would have confessed failure, if 

failure it had been. He was quite unspoiled by his 

honors. To be sure, in any colloquy, at the White 

House or elsewhere, he was apt to take the lead. 

I But why not? It belonged to him. Doctor Alex- 

I ander Lambert, speaking to me on this point, said, 

j "At dinner parties, at the White House or at 

1 Oyster Bay, he did most of the talking. But his 

I guests expected him to do it. They went there 

' to hear him, to get as much of him as they could. 



218 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

And, apropos of his unspoiled nature, even after 
he had returned from his trip to Africa and had 
been feasted and feted in all the European capitals, 
he remained the same impulsive, outspoken Roose- 
velt as of old." Doctor Lambert took him and a 
few friends, directly after Roosevelt's return, to a 
camp in Maine for a few days. And there Roose- 
velt bore his share of the usual camp duties, chat- 
ting and laughing through it all, and always 
solicitous for the comfort of the other members of 
the party. 

Through the observation of his official routine 
work and his definite reforms, a deep, broad con- 
fidence in their President was growing up in the 
hearts of the people of the country. They were 
more and more confident of two of his qualities. 
First, that he desired supremely, in an old-fash- 
ioned, ingenuous way, to do what was right, and 
to do it because it was right. And second, not 
only the people of the United States, but the 
nations of the world saw that he kept his word, 
that he did what he said he would do. This con- 
viction of his intensity and tenacity of purpose 
was what caused the German Ambassador Hol- 
leben to bestir himself, in 1902, when Venezuelan 
affairs were disturbing Great Britain and Ger- 
many and, incidentally, the United States and its 
Monroe Doctrine. Roosevelt told the German 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 219 

ambassador that unless Germany consented to arbi- 
trate regarding Venezuela, the American squadron, 
fifty vessels, then mobilized at Porto Rico under 
Admiral Dewey, would go to the Venezuelan coast 
and check German aggressions there. Holleben 
haggled over the matter. He thought that Roose- 
velt was merely bluffing. He did not know him. 
A week of idle talk ensued. Then Holleben called 
on the President upon an entirely different 
matter and did not mention Venezuela. Roosevelt 
reminded him of it and asked if he had taken any 
steps toward arbitration. Holleben replied that 
he had not. "Then," the President rejoined 
sharply, "I shall send Dewey and his ships a day 
sooner than I had planned." 

That brought the elusive German official to his 
senses. For he knew that if Roosevelt said he 
would strike, he would certainly do so. And a 
message came from Germany within thirty-six 
hours, agreeing to the arbitration. 

I myself saw, at close quarters, another illus- 
tration of the established reputation of President 
Roosevelt as a man of his word. I was at Tangier 
soon after the Perdicaris-Raisuli affair. Raisuli, 
a Moroccan bandit, abducted the American, 
Perdicaris, from Tangier, carried him back into 
the wild interior, and from there negotiated for 
an enormous ransom. The Moor had known 



220 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Perdicaris in a friendly way, and now gave him 
considerate treatment, but held him close and 
awaited a ransom. Negotiations began and con- 
tinued. The government of picturesque, half- 
savage Tangier was shared among representatives 
of several European governments. They now 
made a show of threatening Raisuli, but he was 
unyielding. He held his valuable captive for sev- 
eral weeks. 

Then the matter, the outrage, came to Roose- 
velt's attention. He promptly sent word to Tangier 
that if ]Mr. Perdicaris was not set free within forty- 
eight hours-, an American warship would shell the 
town. That brought life into the somnolent ne- 
gotiations. And, somehow, the "impossible" was 
accomplished. At once Raisuli was led speedily to 
surrender his captive friend, and Tangier breathed 
more freely. I met JNIr. and IMrs. Perdicaris. 
And, further, I heard the comments of the people, 
Levantines, Moors, and others, in the market place. 
Said one, with staring eyes, "That Roosevelt say 
he do — and he do" Another exclaimed, "What 
President! What President! He always do — 
what he talk." 

Gradually the world was learning that President 
Roosevelt really loved what was right and true 
and was earnestly trying to act in accord with his 
ideals. This elemental ethical fact American poll- 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 221 

ticians were almost slower to learn than were the 
high officials of foreign lands. The usual hordes 
of office-seekers and place-hunters besieged the 
\'\^iite House. Miss Ellen Hale, daughter of the 
late Edward Everett Hale, told me a tale which 
lays bare selfishness and the blighted hopes of 
certain of these gentry. Miss Hale, an artist, 
greatly desired to make a drawing of President 
Roosevelt. But he told her that he could not pos- 
sibly spare time for the sittings. "Nevertheless," 
added he, "if you care to set up your easel in my 
office in the White House, and try to do your work 
while I am doing mine, I would be most willing to 
give you that privilege." 

So Miss Hale set up her easel in one corner, and 
started upon her task. And this was the point of 
the story, as she told it to me. "Men came and 
went," she said. "I was free to listen or not. 
Often this situation came about. A man would 
come in and greet the President; then — 'I would 

be glad, Mr. President, if you could ' Here, 

perhaps, he discovered poor little me over in the 
corner, painting away for dear life. And his tone 
altered at once. In a lowered tone he went on, 
'But this is a private matter, Mr. President. Quite 
confidential between us, I assure you.' And his 
distrustful glance was directed toward my corner. 

"Then, what fun it was — and the incident was 



222 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

oft-repeated — to see Mr. Roosevelt's peculiar and 
mischievous smile, as he reassured the man, 'My 
dear Mr. Smith, you can go right ahead. You can 
say anything to me here which you could say any- 
w^here.' 

"Sometimes the uneasy man went on and stated 
his wishes. But often his face clouded and he 
strode out abruptly, and with manifest wrath." 

When Roosevelt became Vice-president, Doctor 
John ]VI. Schick, pastor of Grace Reformed 
Church, Washington, D. C, wrote him, inviting 
him to attend services in Grace Church. Roosevelt 
accepted the invitation, and, during his terms as 
Vice-president and President, while in Washing- 
ton was very regularly in his place at the morning 
service. When he could not come, his rule was to 
send a note to Doctor Schick, expressing his regret. 

Roosevelt invariably walked to and from church. 
Members of his family and White House visitors 
were often with him. He came into the sanctuary 
a minute before service began, with such prompt- 
ness that it was a common saying in the neighbor- 
hood that people could set their watches by the 
minute of his entrance into the church. 

In the early period of his attendance, he was 
once late, due to the incorrectness of the White 
House clock. He was much embarrassed, profuse 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 223 

in his apologies to the church usher, and promised 
"it will never happen again." It never did. 

He was a devout worshiper, participating in the 
service and most heartily in the singing. He was 
a keen listener and often took notes of things said 
and announced. Whenever there was a call to aid 
the poor, he responded next day with a generous 
check. He regularly participated in the quarterly 
celebration of the Holy Communion. 

Doctor Schick was a straightforwara, sterling 
character, and Roosevelt was very fond of him, — 
always met him and had time for him when he 
called, however pressing the duties of the presiden- 
tial office. Roosevelt participated in a number of 
special services at Grace Church, and gave the 
congregation a fine portrait of himself, painted 
just before he became Vice-president. 

As we look back now, over the completed life 
work of Theodore Roosevelt, our opinions might 
differ as to what was the greatest contribution of 
his career to the world. But he himself, looking 
backward from the year 1920, reviewing his own 
efforts and weighing his many reforms, fixed upon 
the Panama Canal as his most noteworthy achieve- 
ment, and so stated in his Autobiography. 

After his term of office at the White House was 
ended, I read in several newspapers, which had 
been extreme in their opposition to him, that "The 



224 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

most important contribution he has made to the 
well-being of the country has been his raising the 
moral standards of the youth of the land." What 
he would have said on that point I do not know. 
Certainly he had thought of such a matter, though 
briefly, for he thought of most sides of most mat- 
ters, and always with acumen. But more interest- 
ing to him, because more definite and more fought 
for, was the great waterway between the two 
Americas, vainly dreamed of for centuries and by 
him created. 

My own interest in the Canal had been sketchy 
indeed, but real. In 1881 I met the then aged 
Count De Lesseps in Paris, and I looked at his 
huge frame and blond, benign countenance with 
memories in my mind of the Suez Canal which had 
brought him, its projector, deserved renown. At 
that very time he was planning to cut a waterway 
across the Isthmus of Panama. But the Suez Canal, 
with its level territory and sandy soil, was mere 
play compared with the projected cut across that 
almost impossible Central American isthmus. 

So the millions of francs poured by France into 
the Isthmian scheme were swallowed up, the work 
slackened, difficulties overwhelmed, and the canal 
was pushed only a few miles on its way across the 
obdurate country. I was reminded of De Lesseps 
and his failure a few years later, when in Palestine. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 225 

As we sought to travel from Jaffa up to Jerusalem, 
we were shown into a train of tiny cars, driven by 
a dwarf -like locomotive, on a narrow-gauge track. 
And when I inquired about this singular train, I 
was told that it had been sent from the Panama 
Canal region. Several of these cars and engines 
seemed the sole remnants of that unhappy Gallic 
enterprise. 

The Panama Canal project, as taken up by 
President Roosevelt and pushed to a successful 
end, dragged its serpentine length through several 
years of Roosevelt's administration and beyond it. 
Also we may say that it had roots, antecedents, a 
history running back, at least in fancy, to Balboa's 
day. Treaties and revolutions had succeeded one 
another, and if Roosevelt had not been the genius 
of energy that he was, treaties would still be pend- 
ing in Washington and revolutions would still be 
existent and tyrannous in Colombia. There was 
the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, and the Hay- 
Pauncefote Treaty, and the Hay-Herran Treaty 
and sundry other little tentative inquiries and un- 
derstandings and questionings, stretching down 
over the decades like vines over a trellis. There 
was a steadily increasing conviction, evident among 
all the leading governments of the world, that some 
kind of canal could and should be constructed. 



226 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

But there the matter hung, jealously watched by 
several interested nations. 

Then Roosevelt, very soon after the untimely 
death of President McKinley, put into action ideas 
which had been germinating in his mind for several 
years past. In a characteristic address which he 
made in 1911, at the University of California, he 
gave a summary of his action, which was as clear 
and humorous as Lincoln's communications often 
were. He said: 

"I am interested in the Panama Canal because 
I started it. If I had followed traditional, con- 
servative methods, I should have submitted a 
dignified state paper of probably two hundred 
pages to Congress, and the debate would probably 
be going on now. But I took the Canal Zone and 
let Congress debate. And while the debate goes 
on, the Canal goes on also." 

That was Roosevelt's way. He preferred, 
always, to move in harmony with established laws 
and precedents. But when these merely impeded 
him, when they were even thrown across the path 
of his plans by his enemies, like logs across a railroad 
track, he simply removed them and went ahead. 
As we look back at the childish, refractory conduct 
of elementary Colombia and its feather-brained 
revolutionists, we can face the problem in its large 
world-outlines. The industrial, commercial world 



THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 227 

needed a canal cut through the isthmus. And all 
plans were being juggled and the world's needs 
were being disregarded by the unscrupulous, half- 
civilized demagogues of that Central American 
country. It was, as happened before in Roosevelt's 
career, a Gordian knot. And he cut it. I believe 
that his action was entirely justifiable in the Court 
of Equity. 

In his Autobiography he takes pains to say 
pleasant, approving things about certain superior 
social types and groups in Colombia; but in con- 
versation, even in after-dinner speaking, he said 
— at least on one occasion — things which were not 
so complimentary. When I was at Trinidad, West 
Indies, in 1920, friends there told me about Roose- 
velt's brief visit to the island and about a formal 
dinner given him. In his address after the dinner, 
he spoke of local affairs and mentioned their neigh- 
bor, Colombia, saying casually that the Colombians 
were of light weight, scarcely capable of self- 
government. But the Colombian consul happened, 
alas, to be among the guests ; and naturally he re- 
sented any such opinion. He even sent to Mr. 
Roosevelt a challenge to mortal combat. But the 
veteran of San Juan gave no attention to it and 
departed, as he had planned, on the early morning 
steamer. 

Any one who knew Roosevelt's fine courtesy 



228 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

knew that his words at that dinner were uttered 
without the shghtest suspicion of the consul's being 
present. But the speech must have made many of 
the guests extremely uneasy. 

So the work on the canal went forward steadily, 
although amid very gi'ave obstacles in that mos- 
quito-ridden, fever-smitten tropical region. The 
President always gave most hearty praise to the 
skill and patience of Colonel Goethals, the efficient 
engineer and director of the work. And when 
Congress insisted upon putting the direction of 
the work under a commission, Roosevelt, who felt 
that he ought to make some show of compliance 
with their stupid demand, appointed Colonel 
Goethals chairman of that body and gave him such 
full power that he remained practically the con- 
trolling spirit. 

Thus through days of work, and controversy, 
and self-control, and high devotion, Roosevelt went 
forward across the lofty plateau of the Presidency. 
Puzzling thickets there were on that broad expanse, 
and many barriers and unexpected gullies. But 
joyously the untiring traveler went on his way, 
the wonder, the hope, the trust of the people. In 
the midst of the plateau, halfway across the broad 
plain, came the pause, the inn, the semblance of 
brief respite. Then forward, across the beckoning 
expanse, which men called his Second Term. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ELECTED PRESIDENT 

Who is the Happy Warrior? 

" 'Tis he whose law is reason^ who depends 

Upon that law as on the best of friends; 

He labors good on good to fix, and owes 
To virtue every triumph that he knows : 
. . . Who, if he rise to station of command. 
Rises by open means ; and there will stand 
On honorable terms, or else retire. 
And in himself possess his own desire; 
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same 
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim." 

It may seem a self-contradictory question to 
ask — "Can anything be higher than the highest?" 
But, in Roosevelt's case, at this point in his career, 
the question might be answered forcefully in the 
affirmative. "There can be a higher than the 
highest." He had been President, to all intents 
and purposes, for more than three years. He had 
borne all the presidential responsibilities and exer- 
cised all the presidential prerogatives. But his 
position and power had come as an accident. None 
knew this better than himself. 

His wise, firm administration through the three 



230 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

years had added to his prestige. And now, as the 
presidential election of 1904 drew near, there was 
hardly a question in the mind of any intelligent 
citizen as to his continuance — now by election — 
in the presidential office. He himself was perfectly 
well aware that he had met the wishes of a very 
large majority of the voters of the country. Yet 
his experience had taught him, as experience had 
taught sadly many of us, that the people as a whole 
might desire a man for President and yet not get 
him, because that man was not acceptable to the 
party managers, — sometimes called "The Old 
Guard", or again, "The Gang." 

Roosevelt said openly, frankly, with that in- 
genuous, childlike quality in him, that he "would 
be glad to be elected, really elected, this time, to 
the high presidential office, in his own right, be- 
cause he had served his country well." Indeed he 
had, and incidentally he had enjoyed the work 
immensely. Several times, in public as in private, 
he had declared — protecting his idealism with a 
plain garment of homespun humor — that he "liked 
his job." 

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" did 
not apply to this man. His love of action was so 
great that the gratification of that love offset all 
accompanying cares and anxieties and pangs of 
failures. He felt the cares and disappointments 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 231 

keenly, but his resilient nature threw them off : he 
reacted immediately against them, and with that 
reaction came instantly a state of joy. In fact, 
following this lead, I venture to repeat that he 
did not much enjoy — as do most normal persons 
— 'the theater, the lecture, the concert, the opera, 
and the picture gallery. The reason for it is this, as 
I interpret his nature. The pleasure from all these 
high arts is a pleasure that assumes passivity in the 
listener or observer. And Roosevelt ^ot but little 
joy from passive mental states. Further, in the 
case of the theater, I think that its simulations, 
artistic though they might be, were distrusted by 
him. He was fiercely eager for what is genuine, 
without any pretence. And he could not, or would 
not, enough subordinate this craving for reality 
and sincerity to allow him to enjoy the simulations 
of the stage. 

In the revealing Trevelyan letters, Roose- 
velt's unofficial personal life is laid before us with 
unreserve. It is the inner man, the reader, scholar, 
observer of life, that is shown us. And, in a letter 
written in Africa in 1909, he frees his mind about 
Carlyle in a way which greatly pleases me. Un- 
reality, whether in a stage drama or on a page of 
history or biography, is equally abhorrent to him. 
He says, writing intimately, "The more I read 
Carlyle the more I feel contempt for his shrieking 



232 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

deification of shams. I can't stand his hypocrisy, i 
his everlasting praise of veracity joined with Ais 
mendacity in giving a false color to history and a 
false twist to ethics. With sanctimonious piety 
he condemns as wrong-doing in the French that 
which he imputes to Frederick the Great for 
righteousness. With Carlyle morality is used as 
a synonym for ruthless efficiency." 

Directly following a full, long page of this kind 
of fierce indictment comes, like a commonplace 
cold compress on one's heated brow, the lines, "The 
porters are just bringing into camp the skin and 
tusks of a bull elephant which I killed, three days 
ago; and Kermit got another, yesterday. Between 
us, we have killed seventeen lions." 

Two points about that letter. First, the rapidity 
with which very diverse moods followed one an- 
other in Roosevelt's mobile mind, and, second, it 
occurs to me that in denouncing Carlyle's insin- 
cerity he is condemning a man who almost 
worshiped the Roosevelt type of man. And I 
wonder what the Sage of Chelsea — to me largely 
a brilliant poseur — would have said and written 
about Theodore Roosevelt, a phenomenon of 
initiative, self-reliance, and power, had he lived 
after Roosevelt, instead of before him. 

Roosevelt "liked his job." He was indeed, as 
Acting President, "The Happy Warrior." He 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 233 

hoped to continue his battling for right and justice 
and progress through another four years. The 
lofty plateau of national official honors and duties 
already had been half-crossed by him and the re- 
maining half now beckoned. It was "the call of 
the Presidency" to him, attractive and rich in 
promise of high, brave service. 

For his reelection — or, better, his real election 
— Roosevelt trusted to "the plain people." He had 
a graphic cartoon fastened on one of the walls of 
the White House during several months. It was 
the picture of a plain, bucolic, shrewd-looking in- 
dividual seated, in shirt sleeves and stocking feet, 
before the fireplace, reading his daily nev;spaper. 
"That is the man," Roosevelt frequently explained, 
"who is my hope. If I can meet that old fellow's 
ideas of right and justice I shall be satisfied. For 
he is The American People." 

Roosevelt, through skillful use of the newspaper 
reporters and by square dealing with them — at 
Washington as in New York — had got his real 
aims and purposes, uncorrupted, undistorted by 
the bosses of Labor and Capital, to the ear, eye, 
and will of "the plain people." Th©re was his 
strength and his hope. He had distrust concern- 
ing Mark Hanna, who had been practically the 
"power behind the throne" throughout gentle, 
peace-loving McKinley's administration. And 



234 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Mark Hanna, sounding Roosevelt, sent him a sig- 
nificant telegram in 1903, in which he hinted at 
the advisability of Roosevelt's "keeping in" with 
him as the probable arbiter of the yomig candi 
date's future fate and fortune. 

To this subtle communication Roosevelt replied 
scornfully, "I have had nothing to do with the state 
issue which you refer to, and I have asked no man 
for his vote." So he "played his hand alone", 
trusting to the intelligence and probity of the 
bucolic gentleman reading his newspaper by the 
open fire. 

Roosevelt's straightforward letter at this time 
to a straightforward man. Baron d'Estournelles de 
Constant, of France, — for I knew him, and he was 
that — sets this forth so simply and effectively that 
I quote a few passages of it. 

"Of course I would like to be reelected Presi- 
dent. ... so far as I can I shall give heed to 
considerations of political expediency; I would be 
unfit for the position or for any leadership if I did 
not do this. But when questions of deep principles 
arise, real expediency is to be found in unflinching 
adherence to those principles, no matter what the 
temporary effect. When matters of elementary 
justice arise there can be no compromise. Murder 
is murder and theft is theft, and there can be no 
halfway measures in dealing with criminality. 



i 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 235 

There are good men and bad men under all creeds, 
colors, and nationalities. If this world is to im- 
prove, it must be by the recognition that a man's 
heart and soul, his worth and action, determine 
his standing. ... I would rather lose the Presi- 
dency than gain it by failing in any way to put a 
stop, so far as I am able, to lynching and brutality 
and wrong of all kinds." 

He goes on, in this same letter, to speak of his 
pressing problems regarding Labor and Capital. 
But he puts the same ideas more simply in a letter 
to his old-time friend. Bill Sewall. 

"I am a little melancholy because it is so hard 
to persuade different kinds of people to accept 
equal justice for all. I believe in rich people who 
act squarely and in labor unions which are man- 
aged with wisdom and justice. But when either 
employer or employee, capitalist or laboring man 
goes wrong, I have to cinch him. And that is all 
there is to it." 

In truth he felt that with Capital on the one side 
and Labor on the other, both threatening him, he 
was as one between the upper and nether mill- 
stones. Yet any "melancholy" which he felt was 
but momentary and did not undermine his habitual 
confidence in right and the conscience and intelli- 
gence of the American people. 

John Hay, in his diary, records an incident that 



236 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

occurred at this time, which is sweet and distinctly 
reveahng as to Roosevelt's real sincerity with 
himself. Hay happened to come upon him as he 
was reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem, 
"Days." And Roosevelt read aloud the last line, 
— • "I, too late, under her solemn fillet saw the 
scorn." Said Hay, his close friend, "I fancy you 
do not know what that means?" And the Presi- 
dent exclaimed quickly, "Oh, but I do. Perhaps 
the 'greatest men do not; but I, in my soul, know 
I am but the average man, and that only marvelous 
good fortune has brought me where I am." 

To me a touching scene, that: a soul-searching, 
sincere confessional, as between two trusting 
friends. Theodore Roosevelt meant what he said. 
I have heard the same declaration from his in- 
genuous lips. Nevertheless, he was more, much 
more than an average man; he was a great man, 
and his very simplicity was one of the marks of his 
greatness. 

The presidential election was held on November 
8, 1904, and Roosevelt's overwhelming majority 
was about two millions and a half out of a total of 
thirteen and a half million votes cast. The people 
approved him and desired more of him. 

The inauguration took place on March 4, 1905, 
and Washington was a brilliant and happy city on 
that day. The usual formalities were observed, and 



SAGAMORE HILL. 



^C KK'f /^^C 






I.ETTEIi FF.OM liOOSEVELT TO THE AUTHOR, 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 237 

in addition sundry exceptional details may be here 
mentioned. One is that on that eventful day 
Roosevelt wore the ring which had been given him 
by John Hay. It was a gold ring with a lock of 
Abraham Lincoln's hair in it. How much it meant 
to Roosevelt they alone can realize who realize how 
deeply he reverenced Lincoln. 

In passing, I suggest that this ring is the one 
that put the tiny dents, many in number, into the 
surface of Roosevelt's desk at the White House. 
A friend assures me that he has seen them. They 
were caused by my classmate's vigorous and re- 
peated manual emphasis of his mental moods and 
tenses, as he conferred with visitors. 

A unique item on the program was that fifty 
cowboys, or Rough Riders, in full frontier regalia, 
with lassoes, and riding Indian ponies, formed a 
part of the procession. To add variety to the 
march they several times lassoed pedestrians who 
happened to stray too near their line. 

A letter of Matthew Hale's, from which I take 
these bits of information, says that on the exciting 
morning of the inauguration, when the White 
House was under some pressure, "Mrs. Roosevelt 
alone seemed perfectly natural. First she did a 
little knitting in the library ; then she poured some 
'eye-drops' into Mrs. Cowles' eyes." The incident 
confirms my own admiring judgment about Mrs. 



238 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Roosevelt; and I recall a scrap from my school- 
book, ''Ea^ uno disce omnesf^ 

In these post-bellum days we hear much parrot- 
talk about "Internationalism" uttered by men and 
women — phrase-fed people — who are satisfied 
with mere words. And they fail to see that "Na- 
tionalism" and "Internationalism" are ideals that 
are mutually interactive. Roosevelt was a "Na- 
tionalist", yet he was also "International" in his 
sympathies. And when he saw, at this period, 
1904, two great nations, Russia and Japan, grap- 
pling each other, feeling murderously for each 
other's throats, and inevitably thereby disturbing 
the welfare of the world, he held one hand firm on 
the helm of the Ship of State, and he stretched out 
his other hand to render aid to his neighbor nations. 
We all remember that Russo-Japanese War. The 
Russian fleet stealing cautiously down through the 
North Sea and, misled by their inflamed nerves, 
firing upon the craft of innocent British fishermen 
on the Dogger Bank and sending them to the bot- 
tom. Then the great fleet, ill-fated from the first, 
made its apologies to Great Britain and passed on 
its half-hearted way across the seas until it crept 
up the Chinese coast and met its end at the hands 
of the Little Brown Men in Japanese waters. 

But victory costs so much, often, that it seems 
no better than defeat. And the war was not over. 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 239 

President Roosevelt looked on and saw the two 
antagonists, breathless and well-nigh exhausted, in 
their death grapple. They reminded him of what 
he had seen on the wilds of Dakota and Colorado, 
— two noble stags fighting furiously, with horns 
interlocked, and the strength of both at lowest ebb. 
And he stretched out a hand of help to those 
grappling nations. He put an end to the hopeless 
struggle. He who was markedly a lover of conflict, 
of battle — in a righteous cause — brought peace 
to those two combatants. 

Viscount Kaneko told me much about it, one 
sunny day, as I sat with him in his charming home 
at Tokio. I had gone to him to confer upon a quite 
different matter, and our interview, somewhat 
formal, drew to an end. But, as I arose to go, I 
remarked, "I am glad to see that you have a picture 
of my college classmate Roosevelt on your wall." 
At once Kaneko — who was himself a "Harvard 
man" — became interested and asked, "Were you 
really in the famous class of '80?" Then as I re- 
phed that I was and that I was a devoted friend 
and admirer of my eminent classmate, his formality 
vanished, his immobile face softened into a smile, 
and he said, "Sit down, please. Let's talk about 
him. For I too am his friend and admirer." So 
our interview lengthened out into a half -hour and 
more. And he told me about Roosevelt's generous. 



UO ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR | 

intelligent activity in bringing about the "Peace 
of Portsmouth." aj 

He recalled his own agreeable though anxious 
visit to Oyster Bay and went considerably into de- 
tails. "He has been stupidly considered a hasty 
man", commented Viscount Kaneko. "But such an 
estimate is not correct. He is brilliant and some- 
times audacious, in his lighter moods; but, when 
any serious measure is before him, he ponders it, 
seeks to learn about all sides of it, listens open- 
mindedly to good counsel, and when he reaches his 
decision, he is always right. I can never forget how 
we talked and talked about our terrible war prob- 
lem, there at his beautiful home by the sea." 

Roosevelt held the situation in his hands because 
both of the contending and now exhausted nations 
trusted his intellectual and moral character. And 
the world knows now what a great work he did for 
Russia and Japan and the world, in helping to end 
that war. Baron Rosen, Russian representative 
at the Portsmouth Conference, has written, "Both 
our nations owed a debt of profound gratitude to 
President Roosevelt. ... In the eyes of history 
his success in bringing about peace will be re- 
garded as his crowning achievement." 

Important it is to remember that great peace 
achievement of Roosevelt's, sane, practical, imme- 
diate, as we recall the abuse that has been heaped 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 241 

upon him by "Professional Peace Reformers", 
whose aims were lofty indeed, but whose minds 
were muddy and whose observations and estimates 
of human nature were worthy of five-year-old 
children in the nursery. 

As always, the ludicrous phases of his several 
peace interviews lightened the strain of his intense 
responsibility. Lawrence Abbott, in his vivid, de- 
hghtful "Impressions", has recalled two of these 
humorous situations. Roosevelt had consulted the 
Japanese envoys and was assured that they were 
quite ready to accede to any reasonable terms. 
Then he went to the Russian envoys and asked if 
they would join in a conference if he could arrange 
with the Japanese to hold one. They rephed 
readily that they would be glad to do so. "But," 
they added, "we fear that the Japanese representa- 
tives will not consent." Roosevelt told them that 
he would see what he could do. "And all the time," 
said Roosevelt to Lawrence Abbott, "I had the 
Japanese request in my pocket." 

I must not bore my readers with too many ref- 
erences to the knot tied by Gordius, first King of 
Phrygia; but in my survey of my classmate's 
career I am reminded, again and again, that 
whereas the great Alexander cut only one "Gor- 
dian knot", our modern conqueror cut many, great 
and small. Roosevelt told friends that when he 



242 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

had the envoys of Japan and Russia with him one 
day on board the presidential yacht, Mayflower, in 
Oyster Bay, luncheon was announced. Instantly 
Roosevelt bethought himself as to what delicate 
questions of precedence needed to be considered, 
as he invited his distinguished guests to the lunch- 
eon table. He had not the slightest idea as to the 
established code suitable for the occasion. So he 
promptly cut the petty Gordian knot. "Gentle- 
men," he said, "shall we now all go in to luncheon?" 
And all together they went in ; there was no Alpha 
or Omega afbout it. "Doubtless they were all some- 
what surprised," Roosevelt smilingly added, "but 
they probably put it down to my American inexpe- 
rience in social matters." 

And just here note the blending of two very 
diverse strains in Roosevelt's nature. In a certain 
sense — as in this situation — he thought of himself 
as merely a man among men, and the trifling prob- 
lems of social precedence made him smile. But 
there was that other occasion, when Prince Henry 
of Prussia was a guest at the White House, and 
dull-witted, devoted Holleben suggested to Roose- 
velt that "Prince Henry, a Hohenzollern," should 
precede the President in going out to dinner. With 
what result? I would give much to have seen 
Theodore Roosevelt's tense countenance and to 
have heard his incisive tones, as he replied defini- 



ELECTED PRESIDENT US 

lively, "No person living precedes the President of 
the United States in the White House." I respond 
even now, in the writing, to the exalted, patriotic 
sentiment that was in my eminent classmate's heart 
as he uttered that proud finality. 

The highly successful diplomatic work of Roose- 
velt in ending the Russo-Japanese War naturally 
drew upon him the plaudits of the civihzed world. 
And this approving world-opinion was fittingly 
symbolized in the Nobel prize of a medal and forty 
thousand dollars in gold. The medal he of course 
could not "put from him." But with the money 
he did as did that ancient Hebrew warrior in 
Adullam's cave. David poured out the precious 
cup of water from Bethlehem's gate, as an offering 
to his God. He consecrated it; he dedicated it to 
the Highest. Similarly did Roosevelt. Practical 
ideahst that he was, he could not use that money 
for his own purposes. He could not accept pay- 
ment for doing what his righteous soul, throughout 
his hfe, pledged him to do, — the Right. So he 
"consecrated" that gold by making it a fund to be 
used in conference and arbitration between the two 
great warring classes, — Labor and Capital. 

Roosevelt's close touch with newspaper men is 
illustrated by this letter sent me by Robert L. 
O'Brien, now editor of the Boston Herald: 

"In 1906 I was correspondent of the Boston 



244 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Transcript at Washington, and I came into touch 
with President Roosevelt frequently. I was par- 
ticularly impressed with his universality of infor- 
mation. Mr. J. K. Ohl, then correspondent of 
the Atlanta Constitution and afterwards Manag- 
ing Editor of the New York Herald, once said 
that he never dropped into President Roosevelt's 
office without finding him familiar to the minute 
with what the Atlanta Constitution was saying on 
all public questions. 

"Nor was this experience unusual. Every 
newspaper man found that out. IMy first acquaint- 
ance with him came as a result of his sending for 
me because of something I had written in the 
Transcript with which he did not altogether agree. 
After that I visited him frequently. I noticed 
that there was no book or current writing in fiction, 
in biography, in history, in biology, in applied 
science of any form, with which he did not seem 
absolutely familiar, up to the minute. 

"Mr. Bok, in his recent autobiography, has al- 
luded to the relations that I had with President 
Roosevelt on his account. IMy recollection of the 
story is a little more detailed than Mr. Bok's. It 
came about when William Loeb, Secretary to the 
President, called me by telephone to say that Mr. 
Bok was there in the hope of inducing the Presi- 
dent to run a regular department in the Ladies' 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 245 

Home Journal. Mr. Loeb properly observed, 
'Of course the President of the United States can't 
do that.' I agreed with him and said so. I told 
Mr. Bok what the White House had told me. This 
led to the slight modification of the plan by which 
I became introduced into it, and instead of Mr. 
Roosevelt's running the department himself, he 
talked with me, at regular periods, during the time 
he was being shaved, and I wrote out an interpre- 
tation, or elaboration, of his point of view, and it 
appeared, regularly, in Mr. Bok's magazine, in 
the department which I think he headed 'What 
the President Thinks.' 

"We discussed all sorts of questions. I remem- 
ber one on which President Roosevelt balked, and 
that was woman suffrage. He said that he had 
voted for woman suif rage in the New York legis- 
lature, and that he supposed he was a woman 
suffragist; had always so regarded himself, but 
that there were certain phases of feminine public 
activity which had considerably disquieted him, 
and that his interest in the anti-race suicide cam- 
paign had led him to place less emphasis upon the 
direct participation of women in politics than he 
had formerly done. At all events, he refused to 
give me information for an article on woman 
suffrage. It is fair to record that he afterwards 
publicly spoke with enthusiasm for the cause, and 



246 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

the Progressive party, of which he was the great 
founder, made it a cornerstone. 

"]Mr. Roosevelt had a wonderful faculty of 
coming straight to the point. He would not let 
any one tell him a long storj^ He saw what his 
caller was driving at and jumped into the conver- 
sation with the conclusion, long before the narrator 
reached the point of expressing it. I noticed this 
mannerism many times. I will give an illustration. 

"Somebody introduced a bill in Congress to con- 
solidate the offices of Receiver and Registrar of 
certain land offices in the West. It is fair to Con- 
gress to say that it permits the introduction of such 
bills, but so far as I have observed, never passes 
them. But there was a man in JMontana, of a 
polysyllabic Teutonic name, who held one of these 
offices, and, seeing the introduction of a bill for 
their consolidation, took fright lest he might lose 
his job. He accordingly got a neighbor, who was 
coming to Washington, to see the President, to 
argue against it. I imagine that the neighbor lay 
awake nights on the sleeping car, thinking of the 
arguments that he would present. I was present 
when he arrived, and the conversation took place. 
He got about as far in the story as to give the 
polysyllabic name of his friend, the registrar of 
the land office, and to state something of the fear 
under which he was laboring. 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 247 

*'Then Roosevelt cut the whole dialogue off with 
these words : 'You go back and tell him that if that 
is all he's got to worry about, to possess his soul 
in patience.' The two-hour address was at an end. 

"In spite of his very friendly relations with the 
newspapermen and with the world as a whole, 
President Roosevelt was always thoroughly con- 
scious of the dignity of the presidential office. I 
remember that at a Gridiron Club dinner, just 
after his election in 1904, somebody asked 
facetiously why the country had reelected Mr. 
Roosevelt after having had one term of him; and 
the jocular reply given was the classic phrase, — 
taken, I think, from Disraeli in alluding to the man 
who had married again after an unfortunate early 
matrimonial experience, — 'Because they consulted 
hope, rather than experience.' Mr. Roosevelt told 
me the next day that that line should not have been 
said at a Gridiron Club dinner ; that he thought that 
was going a little further than the fitness of the 
office and occasion justified. Of course he was 
right." 

It is pleasant, in this chronicle of the salient 
events of my classmate's life, to put on record, at 
this point, a few reminders of the friendly rela- 
tions which existed between him and Richard 
Olney. Both of these men were my friends. They 
were of rival political parties. And both of them 



248 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

were cast in that gladiatorial mold which did not 
easily brook opposition. Both were ardent de- 
votees of wholesome athletic sports. I myself have 
faced, on several occasions, Mr. Olney's minatory 
countenance across the tennis court. 

Yet these men were essentially large men, and 
even though formally opponents at times, they 
maintained a mutual respect which was creditable 
to them, and now is pleasant to contemplate. 

When Roosevelt was Commissioner of Police, 
in New York, he wrote Mr. Olney, congratulating 
him on his appointment as Secretary of State. 
And his letter closes with a line of characteristic 
buoyancy, "I suppose you still play tennis. I 
have been so busy here that I have not had time 
to play anything except Hades with the police." 
This last eschatological allusion does not imply any 
sudden leaning toward studies in divinity. 

In 1901, when Roosevelt's accession to the presi- 
dential chair had come, Mr. Olney wrote with in- 
formality and warmth: 

"My dear Roosevelt: I am writing you, not as 
you are, President, but as a friend, whom I value 
and in whose fortunes I am much interested. I 
congratulate you. . . . You come to the Presi- 
dency with health and strength which few can 
boast, with talents of a high order, disciplined and 
developed, and with a prestige and hold upon the 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 249 

admiration and affection of the people at large, 
without regard to party lines, such as no other man 
in public life to-day enjoys. . . . That your aims 
are of the highest I need no assurance. The 
highest measure of success, therefore, should attend 
your efforts. And that the event may justify 
the fortunate beginnings is my cordial wish." 

To this friendly letter Roosevelt replied, "I am 
tempted to say that no letter has pleased me more 
than yours. It gi-atified me exactly as President 
Cleveland's cordial greetings did. I thank you for 
it and I appreciate it. I need not tell you that I 
realize fully the burdens placed upon me. All that 
in me lies to do will be done. I want you to loiow 
that my purpose is entirely single. I want to make 
a good President, and follow those policies which 
shall be for the good of the whole people ; all party 
considerations will be absolutely secondary." 

Out of the many struggles and contests of Presi- 
dent Koosevelt's vigorous four years in the White 
House the "Brownsville Affair" of 1906 draws my 
attention, not so much because of any vital impor- 
tance attaching to it, but because I have been so 
long and so deeply interested in the "Negro 
Problem" of our country and have been intimate 
with the great leaders of that race. The bare facts 
are these. During the night of August 13, ten 
or twenty negro soldiers, regulars, of the 25th 



250 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

U. S. Infantry, stationed near Brownsville, Texas, 
stole out from their barracks and terrorized the 
town, shooting into houses and shops, and killing 
at least one man and wounding several. 

The affair was grossly a violation of military 
rules and civil law. The negro companies had been 
treated with much contempt and insult by many 
inhabitants of the town. But the outbreak was 
inexcusable, deplorable, and criminal. And the 
whole nation was roused to an excited interest in 
the bare little frontier town. 

At once the officers of the garrison took up the 
matter and the War Department at Washington 
backed them zealously. Investigation began. 
Proof was conclusive that the "shooting up" had 
been done by regular soldiers with United States 
rifles. But not one of the culprits could be dis- 
covered or led to confess. The examination of a 
large number of suspects was most thorough, but 
vain. A prominent negro of the South, an edu- 
cated and admirable man, afterward pointed out to 
me the futility of the methods used in that trial 
and examination. Said he, "Picture to yourself 
a negro soldier, summoned before a board of white 
officers, the chairman of that board being a South- 
ern Major or Colonel, and picture the countenance 
of that terrified and perhaps guilty soldier, as he 
meets the stern questions shot at him like bullets." 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 251 

I could easily picture what he suggested. For 
I knew well the stolid, impervious, self -protective 
stupidity with which the average negro in the 
South can mask his naturally mobile features 
under such conditions. The clam, with tightly 
closed lids, is vivacious and voluble in comparison 
with him. And that armor of stolidity worn by 
the Brownsville soldiers could not be broken 
through by the protracted attacks of the South-led 
military board. The examination proved futile. 

I asked my negro friend — who was as regretful 
and angry at the lawless revolt as was I — what 
would have been the wiser course of investigation, 
and he replied with a smile, "An unknown negro 
detective, say from New York, thrown into that 
camp and mingling with the soldiers, would have 
had the secret out of them in twenty-four hours." 

So the investigation was blocked and it failed. 
But Theodore Roosevelt, immensely concerned 
always for obedience to rightful laws, civil or mili- 
tary, was not the man to confess defeat as the 
chagrined official board confessed defeat. Some- 
thing must be done. And he did it. He imposed 
dishonorable discharges from the service upon 
nearly the whole three companies involved. Some 
individuals had committed the nefarious crime and 
all had connived at it and concealed it. So he im- 



252 ROOSEVELT: THE HArPY WARRIOR 

posed a "blanket" discharge on a large, inclusive 
group. 

Vast excitement ensued. The matter was 
warmly discussed in Congress and throughout the 
entire country, among whites and blacks. All 
kinds of motives were discerned in the President's 
peremptory action by friends and foes, both of 
the President and of the negro race. I myself 
knew, within a month after the event, that negro 
soldiers were the guilty men. Yet the opposite 
opinion was held by both white and black men 
until more than a year afterward, so involved was 
the tangle and so complete was the conspiracy of 
silence among the men under suspicion. 

It was not a colored problem, that Brownsville 
affair; it was a military problem of morale, and 
it was exceedingly perplexing. And only Roose- 
velt's instinctive, phenomenal self-reliance, courage 
— yes, and faith — carried him through it with suc- 
cess. Looking back through the misty past, I do 
not see, among our honored Chief Executives, any 
who would have "carried on" as did Roosevelt, 
until I reach back to our great Abraham Lincoln; 
and even he might not have solved so peculiar a 
problem so creditably. 

Here is a delightful little incident, as reported 
by Joseph Bishop. "I was stationed in Washing- 
ton at this time," he narrates, "and when talking 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 253 

with the President one morning, I made reference 
to the Brownsville debate in the Senate. 'Oh, that 
is merely the latest log going down the stream,' 
was his amused comment. When, a little later, 
there appeared in the Century Magazine, an ex- 
cellent article by Roosevelt on 'The Ancient Irish 
Sagas', I asked the President how he found time 
for such research as this article showed. His char- 
acteristic reply was, 'I have always been interested 
in that subject. And when this Brownsville row 
started in the Senate, I knew it would be long and 
might be irritating to me if I followed it. So I 
shut myself up, paid no heed to the row, and 
wrote this article on the Sagas.' " 

Such a sane, sensible thing for a man to do, that 
was. Peculiarly so for a man who knew his own 
natural excitability and impatience over slow, red- 
tape methods. Then, beyond that, Mr. Bishop's 
incident reminds me of what that intimate member 
of the Roosevelt family. Doctor Lambert, said to 
me one day, in the New York Harvard Club. 
"Roosevelt was a tremendously and continuously 
active man. He was always doing some definite 
thing. Most men can lounge, at times, and pipe- 
dream, in a comfortable half-asleep way. But 
Roosevelt never had such moods, probably did not 
allow himself to have them. He was either fully 



254 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

awake, at work or recreation, or he was fully- 
asleep. No time was wasted by him." 

And Arthur Woods has told me about a hurried 
visit which he made to the White House, when he 
was Police Commissioner of New York. Some- 
thing in the restless metropolis needed a strong 
hand of control, and that hand was in the White 
House. Mr. Woods telegraphed ahead, made an 
appointment, and in due time took a seat in the 
waiting line before the President's closed door. 
Soon the President came to the door and beckoned 
to him. As he did this he was reading from some 
sheets of writing paper. "And," said Mr. Woods, 
"after hastily greeting me, he read busily all the 
way along the hall and to his desk, evidently com- 
pleting his examination, as he seated himself." 
There was little time wasted by him, when at work 
or at play. But how he recuperated from this in- 
cessant expenditure of energy, — that is the mys- 
tery of his remarkable personality. 

The sophisticated world does not much care to 
hear or read a man's estimate of his own record. , 
Yet, in Roosevelt's case, such was his stern, 
equitable appraisal of himself, when in his calm i 
moods, that we may really listen to him, as he re- 
views his achievements somewhat in his gradation | 
of their value, in a letter of December, 1908, to a i 
friend in London. In condensed form his resume ! 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 255 

reads thus : "During my term as President I have 
more than doubled the navy of the United States, 
and our battle-fleet is to-day doing what no other 
fleet of a similar size has ever done, — circumnavi- 
gating the globe." From my own experience as a 
traveler who has visited ports in nearly all the 
leading countries of the world, I see the wisdom 
of that enterprise. Roosevelt knew, as every 
traveler knows, that our standing as a nation, in 
the eyes of other nations, is largely determined by 
impressions caused by our naval equipment, as seen 
in foreign ports. That tour of the world by our 
fleet was good strategy, a kind of bloodless frontal 
attack, a peaceful preparedness, which I beheve 
was extremely effective. 

Next, Roosevelt named to his London friend, in 
that list of pleasant memories, the Panama Canal. 
Then the Peace Conference at Portsmouth, prac- 
tically ending the Russian-Japanese War. Then 
the Pennsylvania coal strike. Next, he mentioned 
the Forest Reserves, saying simply, "I have dou- 
bled or quadrupled them, throughout the country." 
This was a policy which grew inevitably out of his 
love of the fields and woods and the beautiful wild 
creatures that found shelter there. After naming 
these, he touches briefly upon his irrigation of the 
vast arid tracts of the Far West, then mentions 
the pacifying of the Philippines, the Santo Do- 



256 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

mingo Treaty, the Employers' Liability Law, and 
a score more. It is not only the long list of a man 
who was tireless in his endeavors to correct errors, 
crush evils, and make the country he loved a better 
place to dwell in, but it is an extremely varied list ; 
the record of a far wider range of interests and 
activities than is shown by any previous occupant 
of the White House. Personally, I rate high one 
item not set down in my classmate's list — one to 
which I have previously referred — the moral quick- 
ening which he imparted to the young men of this 
country. By his words and deeds he made public, 
official service more respectable and desirable than 
it ever had been in our country's history. And that 
morale created by him is still with us. 

These records are but the cold, bare framework 
of the nation's vast, throbbing body, vigorous 
during the years from 1901 to 1908. And behind 
them I seek the warm personality of the man. It 
was there, — that unique, tense, brilliant personal- 
ity, that phenomenal character, with as many 
gleaming facets as a rose-diamond. Indeed, the 
explanation of the secret of his greatness lies in his 
many-sidedness coupled with tireless energy. He 
had the hundred eager hands of ancient Briareus 
with a heart of energy like a modern hundred- 
horse-power engine. 

His official life is serious, stern, as preserved in 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 257 

the official records. But his buoyant, lovable, un- 
official life comes to us in the recitals and letters 
of his friends and fellow workers. It was an easy 
prognostication, as he and Mrs. Roosevelt entered 
the White House, — that they would transform it — 
gradually or abruptly — from the national hostelry, 
which it had too often resembled, into a habitation 
of refinement and a center of friendliness and sym- 
pathy, yet of cultivation and the highest American 
social standards. And it may be tersely and 
graphically added that during the Roosevelt re- 
gime the hospitality of the White House, while 
cordial, genuine, was not of the "shirt-sleeve" 
variety. Mistakes were frequently made by vis- 
itors to the Executive Mansion, similar to those 
frequently made by boisterous, rough-handed 
strangers as they met Roosevelt for the first time. 
They mistook social freedom for social anarchy. 
Roosevelt's rule for his home was the same as for 
himself, outside it: "Keep in touch with all kinds 
of people, but maintain inner standards for your- 
self." 

All qualities and strains of men and women were 
received by the President and his charming, dis- 
cerning wife. Senators and Congressmen, cattle- 
men and ex-policemen, college mates and prize 
fighters. On one occasion, two members of the 
"Class of '80" dined at the White House for the 



258 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

first time. And they were surprised and alarmed 
at the freedom of speech which their eminent class- 
mate allowed himself. When a certain high official 
was mentioned, Roosevelt dismissed him with the 
abrupt declaration — and in no subdued voice, be- 
fore the table attendants — "He's a chronic liar. 
I never believe anything he says." And of another 
diplomat he declared, "He's no better than a 
darned skunk." It was easy to understand what 
he said and meant at such times. And my two 
classmates were really alarmed; and they took 
solemn counsel together, as they left the house, as 
to how they could induce "Theodore" to put a 
bridle on his tongue. 

Over against this little coterie of old-time 
friends, as guests, put some of his beloved Rough 
Riders. For all kinds were invited. What fun in 
him it was when he suggested solemnly, as he was 
inviting "Bill", an ex-sheriff of a frontier county, 
"Perhaps you'd better not bring your gun to-night. 
Bill. The British Ambassador is going to be at 
the dinner, and it wouldn't do for you to shoot 
around his feet to make him dance." The story 
runs that "Bill" promised solemnly not to come 
"heeled", and added that even if he had, he "would 
not have thought of doing such a thing." 

At about this time, the autumn of 1907, 
Roosevelt, always eager for life "in the open", 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 259 

made a hunting trip down into Mississippi. His 
friend, Doctor Alexander Lambert, was one of 
the party. During this trip Roosevelt wrote (and 
sketched) several of the charming letters to his 
children which have been put into the volume edited 
by Joseph B. Bishop. Doctor Lambert has given 
me this incident of the trip ; and it shows how wide- 
open Theodore Roosevelt's eyes had now become, 
through experience in "ways that are dark and 
tricks that are vain" in the political world. Just 
as the party was starting from Washington, sev- 
eral reporters hurried into the train, stated that 
a report was circulating to the effect that Messrs. 

H and P of New York were combining 

on some important deal. They asked the President 
to talk about the possibilities and probabilities of 
such a merger. But all that Roosevelt would say 
was this, with a laugh, "Wait, now! Wait! I 
don't really know anything about the matter. But 
as soon as I get back, in a week or so, I will call 
together about fourteen men whom I have in mind, 
and will confer with them. They will probably 
try to deceive me; but out of all their talk I shall 
get at the truth, and I will call you together and 
tell you about it." 

On the wall of the study or office or parlor of 
every member of the "Class of '80" hangs a copy 
of the excellent portrait of Roosevelt by the emi- 



260 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

nent American artist, Joseph De Camp. This 
portrait was painted in the autumn of 1908, in the 
White House. The painting itself now hangs on 
the wall of the Harvard Union. Its story, as told 
me by De Camp, at least partly in the painter's 
own words, runs in this fashion. 

"Two or three of Roosevelt's Harvard class- 
mates came to me, in Boston, and told me that a 
group of them wished a portrait of their famous 
friend and wished me to do it. After some talk, 
I agreed. I went on to Washington to confer with 
the President. On my way I met a friend who 
warned me, after learning about my purpose, 
'Stand right up to Roosevelt or he'll push you off 
the earth. If you do stand up to him, you'll like 
him.' So in I went. I kept the hour and minute 
appointed by Loeb, his secretary. And I had to 
wait one long hour, while I could hear him, Roose- 
velt, in the adjoining room, discussing saddles, 
bits, guns, clothing and all the equipment for his 
hunting trip into Africa, which was to come off a 
few months later. Presently Roosevelt walked in 
and we shook hands. I had never seen him before 
and had really never formed any positive opinions 
about him. When he began to ask questions 
about the sittings, I tried to answer clearly and 
definitely. But when he started in to make sug- 
gestions, I could not long stand it. And I said to 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 261 

him, 'Mr. President, if I'm going to paint this 
picture, I've got to do it in my way. It won't be 
my first picture, either.' 

"That stopped him short. He looked at me 
anew, for a moment, then put out his hand a second 
time, and said with his characteristic smile, 'You 
seem to be the right sort of American ; go ahead.' 
From that moment he let me lead. So we went 
ahead. And all kinds of things happened. But 
let me summarize just here and say that I soon 
saw, from noting the people who came and went 
as I worked, that this man's foundation aim was to 
help the under dog. 

"I never saw a man's exit expedited so skill- 
fully as was that of a French official who came 
in, fully uniformed and decorated, to bring a huge 
volume containing the Personnel of the French 
Navy, for use by an ally, the United States. I 
saw the French officer, a Captain or something 
high, standing near the door, his lips moving, and 
evidently rehearsing the speech in English which 
he had prepared. When the right moment came, 
Roosevelt, who knew the man's errand and did not 
intend to waste time, went quickly over to him, 
seized him by the hand, shook it, accepted the big 
book, asked one or two questions, did not wait for 
replies, and, all the time, with a smile, yet with a 
hand on the official's gold-laced arm, was gently 



262 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

but firmly pushing him towards, and then finally- 
through, the door. It was a good piece of work. 
And I think that the anxious French officer was 
quite as glad to have the interview thus ended as 
was the President. 

"Roosevelt was a great man," continued De 
Camp, "with that simplicity of address which so 
often is seen in really great men. And he did hate 
servility and enjoy a man or woman who stood up 
to him. To illustrate : He had agreed to give me 
an hour's sitting, each time. This he did, faithfully 
though impatiently, several times. Then he got 
into the way of cutting the sitting a bit short by 
saying, in his most winning manner, 'Now, De 
Camp, let's go out and take a little walk in the 
garden.' And out I went with him, two or three 
times. But one day I held him up. I said, without 
shading it, 'Mr. President, you talk about a square 
deal, but you're not giving me that.' 'What do 
you mean?' he demanded sharply, but not angrily. 
'This. You agreed to sit for an hour, each time, 
and you're cutting me out of it.' He took it as I 
thought he would. He looked repentant and re- 
plied, 'Well, I'll do better, after this. I see your 
side of it.' 

"At another time," continued the artist, "I was 
one of a dinner party at the White House. One 
of the guests, Mr. N , a Yankeefied individual 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 263 

with a shrill voice, asked me how the President 
was doing, as a model, as a sitter. And I replied, 
'He's a rotten sitter. That's the whole of it.' 
What was my alarm, a few minutes later, to hear 
this fellow's shrill voice retailing my conversation 
to the President himself. Later Roosevelt made 
his way to me and remarked, 'What's this I hear? 

Mr. N tells me that you said I was a rotten 

model.' Of course I was a bit uneasy, but I knew 
my man and I put the thing through. I re- 
sponded, 'Yes, I did say that. And I would have 
put it even stronger if I had known how. You're 
on the jump, every minute you are posing.' He 
was positively delighted. He smiled, then his face 
grew thoughtful and determined, and he said, 
'Wait until to-morrow's sitting! I'll fool you.' 
And he did, to a certain extent only, however, for 
I knew what was coming — he stood like a carved 
statue. He was putting his will into it." 

One of my friends, who several times was a guest 
at the White House, has tried to make me believe 
that Roosevelt did not mind in the least the ridicule 
and abuse and falsifying of the newspapers, and 
that he often read aloud, with laughter, malicious 
attacks made upon him in their columns. This 
statement may hold true about my classmate when 
he was in the bosom of his family. But it does not 
harmonize wholly with what De Camp narrated. 



264 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

"One day," said the painter, "as he was standing 
in position, his Secretary came in and put some 
press clippings into his hands. He read them, as 
he always read, with lightning rapidity. Suddenly 
and angi'ily he stopped, crushing the slips in his 
hand, and poured out a stream of the strongest 
language that I ever heard. He went on for a 
few seconds thus, consigning a certain New York 
journal to various Dantean regions. Then his 
wonderful sense of humor came to the surface. He 
smiled, and said to me, 'De Camp, if you know 
any stronger language than I've used, will you 
please take up the subject where I left off?' I 
replied, in spirit as in letter, and rolled out some 
phrases in German, in French and in Italian. He 
said, 'Thanks! I feel relieved. I wish I could use 
those myself.' " 

Mr. De Camp continued, "With all its cares 
and struggles, Roosevelt would have been glad to 
continue his term in the White House. I said to 
him one day, 'You have done many things, Mr. 
President. Among others you have got the heads 
of the conmion people above water. They realize, 
as never before, their power and their responsibili- 
ties.' This I said as I worked, and he broke out 
in rejoinder, eagerly, almost fiercely, with all his 
spirit and passion, 'I'd like to stay at this post an- 
other four years, and I'd have them out, not only 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 265 

their heads, but up to their waists.' Such a doer 
of deeds he was. One day he said to me, 'I hate 
a man who never does anything. Why, I'd rather 
do something and get it wrong, and then apologize, 
than to do nothing.' " 

One day, as the sitting was on, a stenographer 
came in, and Roosevelt began to dictate to her. 
He grew very absorbed in this, and the sitting was 
becoming a failure. "Presently," Mr. De Camp 
told me, "I stopped work and waited and looked 
significantly at my model. With a laugh he ceased, 
waved the stenographer away, and explained, 
'That is an address which I have promised to give 
at the Sorbonne, in Paris, when I return from my 
trip to Africa.'" So much for Roosevelt's fore- 
handedness or "preparedness" or thoroughness, 
whichever word you prefer. Verhiim sat. 

Vigorous, strenuous as was President Roose- 
velt's official public Hfe, his private family life was 
almost on a par with it. He spoke from his heart 
when he wrote, "I have had the happiest home life 
of any man I have ever known." And this was 
not alone because of his loving, sympathetic heart, 
but as much because of his intelligent observance 
of the psychological laws that govern all human 
groups, even families. 

He shared so many emotions and experiences 
with the family. He took a deep interest in all the 



^66 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

pets of all the children, — and no family ever gath- 
ered in more pets than the Roosevelt family. 
Doctor Iglehart writes: 

"I saw the President come down the main stair- 
way, at the White House, to greet a distinguished 
guest, an Archbishop. A pet dog had just been 
brought from Oyster Bay and had not yet seen 
Roosevelt. At that moment they met. And the 
joy of the little pet was overwhelming. And ]\Ir. 
Roosevelt went right down on the floor to gi-eet 
him, while the stately Archbishop stood silently 
looking on, ten feet away. In ten seconds Mr. 
Roosevelt was on his feet again, serious, dignified, 
ready to talk with the Archbishop, who, being a 
real man of heart, was immensely pleased with the 
incident." 

A portion of a letter from Doctor David Starr 
Jordan I give here; for it reveals the wide range 
of Roosevelt's interests, even amid his crowded 
presidential days. 

"Roosevelt entered Harvard College hoping to 
become a naturalist, having already made a con- 
siderable collection of birds, besides many observa- 
tions as to their habits. His eyesight being defec- 
tive, however, and not connecting well with mag- 
nifying glasses, his early ambition was discouraged 
by his teachers, to whom the chief range of study 
lay within the field of the microscope. They over- 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 267 

looked the fact that besides primordial slime and 
determinant chromosomes, there were also in the 
world grizzly bears, tigers, elephants, and trout, 
as well as song-birds and rattlesnakes — all of 
which yield profound interest and are alike worthy 
of study. 

"So, being discouraged as to work along his 
chosen line, and in his love of outdoor science, the 
young naturalist turned to political philosophy, his 
secondary interests lying in history and politics. 
He then closed up his private cabinet, giving his 
stuffed bird-skins (through Professor Baird, of 
the Smithsonian) to me. These I transferred to 
the University of Indiana, where they are now in 
a befitting glass case in Owen Hall, each skin 
nicely prepared and correctly labelled in the crude 
boyish handwriting which the distinguished collec- 
tor never outgrew. 

"In the various natural history explorations un- 
dertaken by me — and by others during JMr. Roose- 
velt's administration — we could always count on 
intelligent and effective sympathy. In so far as 
scientific appointments rested with him, he gave 
them careful and conscientious consideration. In- 
deed, during his administration, governmental 
science reached its high-water mark." 

All kinds of pets the nature-loving Roosevelts 
had. In the Autobiography may be read this rather 



268 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

novel incident. "I was talking, one day, with a 
Senator, about the Railroad Rate Bill. ]\Iy 
youngest boy had just been loaned a beautiful 
king-snake, by the admired proprietor of an animal 
shop, not far from us. The boy came rushing in, 
to exhibit his treasure, which he had placed inside 
his coat. As he struggled, eagerly, to get off his 
coat, the Senator started to help him, but sprang 
back in alarm as the boy and the snake popped 
out together, from the garment." 

Well he knew how keenly the normal child loves 
animals. And when he writes home, his tactful 
sympathetic pen throws this off. "Dear Quenty- 
Quee, — The other day, when out riding, what 
should I see, in the road, but a real B'rer Terra- 
pin and B'rer Rabbit. They were sitting sol- 
emnly beside each other, and looked as if they 
had come out of a book. But as I rode nearer, 
B'rer Rabbit went lippity lippity off into the 
bushes, and B'rer Terrapin drew in his head and 
legs, till I passed." 

To one of the older boys he writes, and again 
from the White House: "I am glad I have tried 
this Japanese wrestling, but I am really too busy to 
keep on with it. After I have been grappling with 
Senators and Congressmen all day, by five o'clock 
I feel like a stewed owl. Then the wrestling seems 
a bit too strenuous. My right ankle and my left 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 269 

wrist, and one thumb and both great toes are 
swollen and I carry several bruises. Still, I have 
made good progress ; and, since you left, they have 
taught me three new throws that are perfect 
corkers." 

If the "Man from JNIars" had picked up that 
letter, he would not have surmised that it came 
from the President of the United States. His 
lifelong interest in "the manly art" gave especial 
point to an incident which occurred after he had 
returned to private life. He and Mrs. Roosevelt 
were in a railway station, and ^Irs. Roosevelt was 
having some difficulty about her ticket. At that 
moment a fine-looking man came up and asked if 
he could help. He said further that he had been 
one of the crew of the presidential yacht, the May- 
flower. In reply to Roosevelt's friendly inquiry, 
he stated that he had left the navy in order to 
study dentistry; and "in order to earn money for 
his tuition in his studies, he was practising his real 
profession as a prize-fighter." That amused Roose- 
velt vastly. 

Roosevelt's athletic exercises — kept up, in large 
measure, to give physical support to his strenuous 
mental life — were of the most vigorous sort. Box- 
ing, wrestling, riding, long cross-country "hikes", 
— these he kept up, with that steadfastness charac- 
teristic of him, until late in his life. He was never 



270 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

— as he often said frankly — a first-rate horseman, 
but he was no neophyte. A story told by George 
von L. Meyer, then Postmaster General, and given 
by De Wolfe Howe, in his excellent biography of 
Meyer, runs thus: 

"May 11, 1907, I rode with the President, Root, 
and Lodge. The President put his horse over a 
three-foot stone wall and a four-foot hurdle. My 
horse was in good form, and was carrying thirty 
pounds less than the President's. I, unthinkingly, 
put my horse over the five-foot jump; and at once 
the President put his horse at it. The horse re- 
fused, but his rider set his teeth and put him at it 
again. He cleared it, but barely. Lodge was 
amazed that the President, with his weight and 
mount, had taken such a, risk, and I was sorry that 
I had set the example. The President remarked, 
*I could not let one of my Cabinet give me a lead 
and not follow.' " 

In Rear Admiral Fiske's Autobiography, 
"From Midshipman to Rear Admiral", I find this 
unsought testimonial to the serious, painstaking, , 
open-minded man in the White House in 1907: 

"Roosevelt, when President, aided me greatly in 
bringing my marine projects and inventions into 
use, when other officials at Washington were nar- 
row-minded and gave me no assistance. President 
Roosevelt took his duties as Commander-in-Chief i 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 271 

of the Ai'my and Navy more seriously than any 
other President except George Washington." 

It is pleasant to read this earnest, disinterested 
testimony to Roosevelt's official devotion to his 
work as, for instance, in contrast we get this light 
bit of repartee. Carl Akeley told one day about 
seeing sixteen lions filing slowly out of one cave. 
The President's eye twinkled. "By George," he 
exclaimed, "I wish I could turn those lions loose in 
Congress." A Congressman present interposed, 
"But, ^Ir. President, aren't you afraid they might 
make a mistake?" 

Roosevelt snapped his teeth together, and his 
smile widened. "Not if they stayed long enough," 
he rejoined. 

It was in the full tide of his crowded, active 
"elected" term, in 1905, that he joined his college 
classmates in Cambridge for the celebration of the 
twenty-fifth anniversary of the graduation of the 
Class of '80. As all graduates of Hai-vard know, 
the twenty-fifth anniversary is the bright particular 
milestone along the post-graduate highway which 
is held in highest favor. On that anniversary a 
class is given especial honor; and all its members, 
wherever they may be scattered over the face of 
the earth, seek to return to Cambridge and clasp 
hands and compare notes de voyage, and persuade 
themselves that they are still young men. 



272 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

The celebration of our twenty-fifth anniversary 
began with a reunion and registration at the 
Parker House, Boston, on INIonday, June 26. In 
the evening came the "Pop" concert in Symphony 
Hall, with decorations, cheers for '80, and songs of 
the olden time and the new. At noon, members 
of the class gathered at the Oakley Clubhouse, 
Watertown, where Roosevelt came in due time, be- 
tween showers, for it was a day of broken weather. 
We found him the same vigorous, sympathetic 
friend he had always been. He was really glad to 
have the members of his college class around him. 

Presently the inevitable group picture was 
taken. A copy of it hangs on the wall in front of 
my desk as I write. Roosevelt, of course, is in the 
center, his stern, determined countenance seeming 
like the fixed iron core of a wheel about which the 
fellow members of his class might circle. At his 
right sits — as I look at the picture — Robert 
Bacon, with figure and face noble and beautiful to 
look upon, and with an indwelling spirit of equal 
nobility and beauty. On Roosevelt's left sits our 
Class Secretary, John Woodbury, faithful, untir- 
ing, loyal to his classmates and beloved of them all. 

As I look at this group of men — my friends, 
with whom I share tender memories of an olden 
time — ■ I think them worthy representatives of 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 273 

"Old Harvard" and a fitting guard of honor for 
the man who sits at their center. 

It is only a shred of a sentiment but, as I look at 
the picture, I note that in the foreground, a few 
feet in front of our first line, stands a sundial. 
Symbol and reminder of the passing of the days, 
the flight of the fugitive years. 

One of my classmates, Louis Greeley, writes 
me, recalling our gathering at the Oakley Club. 
"That evening I heard the newsboys in Boston 
crying, 'Evening papers, picture of the Class of 
'80.' I bought a copy and found only a picture 
of Roosevelt. I expostulated with the enterpris- 
ing newsboy, and he rephed, 'Roosevelt is the class 
of '80.' And I did not seriously object." 

The one other meeting which brought us, as a 
class, distinctly together, during that Commence- 
ment Week, was the dinner — strictly a Class din- 
ner — at the Hotel Somerset, Boston, in the evening 
of Tuesday, June 27. It was an enthusiastic 
meeting. I have referred to it in earlier pages of 
this volume. Among the "events" on the program 
was the presentation of three silver tankards, by 
William Hooper, in behalf of the class, to Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, "Bob" Bacon, and John Wood- 
bury. 

The high light of the evening was furnished by 
our eminent classmate, who talked for nearly an 



274 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

hour, in his fervid, fearless way, about affairs of 
the nation and his attempts to set things right. 
There were members present who were newspaper 
men, and some of them took notes; but the talk 
was confidential and was not put into the papers 
in any detail. One of my classmates was L. E. 
Opdycke, and he, with a memory perhaps sharp- 
ened by his good work in the Greek Play at Cam- 
bridge, recalled and wrote to our class secretary, 
on February 8, 1906, six months afterward, the 
exact words with which Roosevelt began his fasci- 
nating address. It runs thus: 

"Now see here, fellows, I want you all to under- 
stand, in the first place, that I haven't the least 
idea that I'm a great man. It is true that I have 
had exceptional success; but then I've had excep- 
tional opportunities. The only credit that I can 
claim is for having been there, every time, to take 
advantage of those opportunities." 

Of course Roosevelt could not "feel great." He 
simply expressed himself, put forth his powers, 
did his work, and his fellows, looking on, have made 
the decision as to his greatness. 

With one passage from Roosevelt's address, 
made in Memorial Hall on Wednesday, June 29, 
I close this chapter. It is both characteristic and 
prophetic. 

"Our presiding officer. Bishop Lawrence, has 



ELECTED PRESIDENT 275 

spoken of my efforts for peace. Of course I am 
for peace. Everj^ President who is fit to be Presi- 
dent is for peace. But I am for one thing before 
peace. I am for righteousness first, and then 
peace. When, in '61, certain of you won peace by 
the sword, you made us forever your debtors; be- 
cause, when the choice was between what was 
peaceful and what was right, you chose the right." 
This was his honest, lofty ideahsm. And he 
held to it by word and deed, with heroic con- 
sistency, through all his length of days. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HIS GREATEST VICTORY 

One of the solemn, though somewhat vague vows 
assumed by neophytes in sundry religious orders 
is the vow to "renounce the devil and all his works." 
This pledge would be easier of fulfillment if the 
diabolic presence and efforts were always easily 
distinguishable. Cloven hooves and forked tail 
and sulphurous fumes do not much attract us; 
but when money or a palace or a throne — or the 
United States Presidency — beckons alluringly 
then the renunciation becomes difficult. 

But this renunciation is what Theodore Roose- 
velt achieved. He renounced a reelection to an 
office and an opportunity which he desired in- 
tensely; he did this because he believed that it was 
right for him to do it. The Republican Party 
leaders, left to their own wishes, were not only 
ready to place William Howard Taft in the White 
House, but they would have been glad to place 
anybody there rather than Roosevelt. 

This was fully understood by Roosevelt, Taft, 
and the party leaders. And the Convention was 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 277 

held and Taft was nominated. Under these con- 
ditions, his nomination was equivalent to an elec- 
tion. But I wish to make clear what has been 
allowed to rest obscured or neglected, that Theo- 
dore Roosevelt's renunciation of a second "elected" 
term marked the highest moral and spiritual level 
that he attained, lofty as his life was throughout. 

There are several letters given in Mr. Bishop's 
collection which make the situation perfectly clear. 
One to Doctor Lyman Abbott, on May 29, 1908; 
one to Judge Dayton, on May 28, 1908; one to 
Frank IT. Hitchcock, Chairman of the Republican 
National Committee, on June 1, 1908. These and 
other published letters make clear the fact that 
Roosevelt not only could have had the nomination, 
election, and Presidency without more effort than 
signifying a "Yes", but that he made every pos- 
sible effort to prevent the convention from forcing 
it upon him as the Vice-presidency had been forced 
upon him. 

This splendid renunciation of a scepter of power 
which fairly leaned toward his now trained hand, — 
this I conceive to mark the highest point morally, 
spiritually, of my beloved classmate's greatness. 
A negation has not the prestige of an affirmation 
in the popular mind; but this in form only; in prac- 
tice it often rises into sublime preeminence. What 
would Julius Caesar, or Bonaparte, or Frederick 



278 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

the Great have done, if in Roosevelt's place, at the 
end of one glorious term and with another term 
offering itself? No answer need be given. And 
I wonder the more at Roosevelt's decision when I 
reflect that he, of all men, was a man of deeds ; and 
for him to deny himself the dazzling privilege of 
a continuance of his patriotic public service, — that 
self-control, that self-denial was a refutation of 
all those charges of insatiate ambition ever 
launched against him by his envious, baffled, un- 
scrupulous enemies. 

History and biography furnish no situation 
equal in solemn significance to Roosevelt's stand, 
as he renounced that third term. If ambition is 
the last lingering "infirmity of noble minds", then 
he had indeed purged himself of all human in- 
firmities. He had thoroughly weighed the merits 
of the case. His extremely frank letters to 
Trevelyan show this. But his deeds tallied with 
his words ; his will and conscience backed his ideal- 
istic perceptions; and he compelled the wish and 
will of a grateful, admiring nation to turn toward 
William Howard Taft, believing this course to be 
best for the country. 

That was his great renunciation, unparalleled 
in all the past. And with it was involved a smaller 
renunciation, far less important, yet a real self- 
denial and a wise self-restraint. Denying himself 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 279 

the pleasure of all oversight of the new incoming 
regime, he planned and carried out his trip into 
Africa. Outwardly this trip was only one of his 
many adventurous excursions into the wild regions 
of the globe. But inwardly there was in his large, 
generous nature the wish to give his friend and suc- 
cessor, Mr. Taft, full and unconstrained sweep for 
the exercise of his new executive powers. That 
was always Theodore Roosevelt's way from child- 
hood, through college, throughout his life, — always 
the large, generous way. 

Roosevelt's departure from American shores 
brought relief to several groups of American citi- 
zens. Among them were the "Interests", so called, 
that is the powerful "team-players" of high finance. 
The mot went the rounds of the press at this time 
that "Wall Street expected every lion in Africa 
to do his duty." 

On JNIarch 23, 1909, Roosevelt set sail from New 
York with several companions, naturalists and 
others, and a complete equipment for the work be- 
fore him. The work was, summarized, the procur- 
ing of mammals, birds, plants for the National 
IMuseum at Washington. As he afterward wrote, 
"Every animal I have shot, except six or eight for 
food, has been carefully prepared for the National 
Museum." 

In a reception speech made in Cambridge, 



280 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

England, on Roosevelt's return from Africa, 
eleven months later, Doctor Henry Goudy put his 
own humorous interpretation on the ex-President's 
African trip, thus: "He is a statesman, a noted 
sportsman, and a naturalist. His onslaughts upon 
the wild beasts of the desert have been not less 
fierce, nor less successful, than his warfare on the 
hydra-headed corruption in his own land." 

And Lord Curzon addressed Roosevelt, soon 
after, in a more rhetorical but equally eulogistic 
way: "Peer of the most august kings, queller of 
wars, destroyer of monsters wherever found, yet 
the most human of mankind, deeming nothing 
uninteresting to you, not even the blackest of the 
black." 

On the whole, that was what Roosevelt stood 
for in the eyes of all European nations, — a vigorous 
successful reformer, a practical idealist, impelled 
by a burning passion to make his native land, and 
indirectly the whole world, more habitable, more 
civilized, because more just, righteous, and humane. 

The Roosevelt party followed the shortest route 
possible : across the Atlantic, through the Mediter- 
ranean and Suez Canal and Red Sea, then down 
the coast of British East Africa and landed at 
Mombasa. Thence by rail through a game country 
where wild animals were so abundant that had it 
not been for the danger involved in getting the 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 281 

more savage kinds, the shooting would have been 
as mock-heroic as that of Kaiser Wilhelm, with his 
high platform and the helpless beasts driven by 
as to an abattoir. 

The actual shooting, by Roosevelt and his son 
Kermit, does not so much interest me. Suffice it 
to say that both of them took their full part in 
the duties, joys, hardships and veritable dangers 
of each day. 

Reading a little between the lines of the reports 
of the several members of that expedition, I 
gather — what I knew before — that my classmate 
had so far overcome that natural timidity against 
which he had set himself in earlier years that he 
had quite forgotten the emotion; and only the un- 
ceasing attention of INIessrs. Selous, Cunningham, 
Tarlton, and others kept him from the sharp fangs 
of the lion and the devastating sweep of the ele- 
phant's trunk. 

Extremely interesting are the bits of informa- 
tion, the revealing incidents, which come to us 
through Roosevelt's own vivid volume, "African 
Game Trails." His love of the beautiful was not 
very marked, as the beautiful is set forth by a 
painter's brush. But Great Nature Herself, with 
her diapason tones, spoke directly to his soul. 
"There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit 
of the wilderness," he declares, "that can reveal 



282 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm. Over 
and beyond the thrill of the fight with dangerous 
animals, there is the fascination of the silent places, 
the large tropic moons, the splendor of the new 
stars; where the wanderer sees the awful glory of 
sunrise and sunset, in the wide waste-spaces of the 
earth, unworn of man, and changed only by the 
slow change of the ages, through time everlasting." 
Another point of interest which the book-lover 
naturally feels for this book-lover hunter is the 
"pigskin library" which he carried with him, and 
in which he buried himself so speedily, when on 
the march or by the campfire, and even instantly 
after bringing down some monster elephant or 
rhinoceros. It was a "working library", that one 
of the pigskin bindings. Worn, soiled, the volumes 
in turn were stuffed into saddle pocket or cartridge 
bag. And I venture the suggestion that those 
books increased the perils of their versatile owner 
— though not to a fatal ending — as did Shelley's 
books, as he sailed in a small boat along the Italian 
coast, one hand holding the tiller, the other a book. 
The poet wrote in his last letter, to a friend, that it 
was a mistake to say, as many had said, that a man, 
while sailing a boat, could do nothing else; for he 
had demonstrated that a man could read and sail a 
boat at the same time. That was poor, unpractical 
Shelley's own obituary. 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 283 

The weeks and months ghded quickly away as 
Roosevelt explored and hunted and gathered flora 
and fauna in Africa. Then came the return by 
way of Khartoum. His "Safari" reached that 
edge of civilization on March 14, 1910. Thence 
directly down the river to Cairo. At this point 
something happened which makes us feel that we 
have again the real Roosevelt, not the khaki-clad 
hunter of big game, but the fearless statesman who 
dared face hostile audiences and attacked tyranny 
and fraud wherever entrenched. He had agreed 
to give an address to a body of Egyptian students. 
They comprised the body of the so-called "Nation- 
ahst Party"; they were the "Young Egypt", in 
protest against British control; and only a month 
before they had assassinated the Prime Minister, 
Boutros Pasha. Warning came to the American 
ex-President that if he dared refer to this "re- 
moval" of the Prime Minister, his own life would 
be in danger. 

Their utter ignorance of Roosevelt's character, 
their stupid threat, hinted at their own incompe- 
tence for self-government. Their threat only 
sharpened Roosevelt's interest in Egyptian insur- 
rectionary affairs. And in his speech he dealt 
directly and vigorously with their lawless, violent 
conduct, which unfitted them, he pointed out, for 



284 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

that self-governing, under law and order, which 
they demanded. 

From Cairo to Italy and up through the several 
European nations which he visited on this re- 
turn to the United States, his journey was like 
the "triumph" of a victorious Roman general of 
the ancient times. It far surpassed, in the en- 
thusiasm aroused, the "Grand Tour" of ex-Presi- 
dent Grant. He did not need disillusioning, as he 
met kings and potentates ; he was too much a man 
of the world for that. He met them with as fine 
a courtesy as their own; he recognized the worth 
in them when it was there; and hollowness and 
pretence gave him frequent occasions for mirth. 

Almost at the threshold of this triumphal 
progress, a situation developed, a problem con- 
fronted him, which would have brought many a 
statesman to confusion. I refer to what is called 
"The Vatican Incident." Briefly, it was this. 
While still on African soil, he had replied to an 
inquiry made by Mr. Leishman, our United States 
ambassador at Rome, that he would be glad to 
meet both the Pope and the King. When he ar- 
rived in Rome, a message from the Rector of the 
American Catholic College, Monsignor Kennedy, 
was awaiting him. 

"The Holy Father will be delighted to grant 
audience to Mr. Roosevelt, and hopes that nothing 



y 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 285 

will arise — like the Fairbanks incident — to pre- 
vent it." 

The "Fairbanks incident" was the visiting, by 
ex-Vice-president Fairbanks, of a certain Meth- 
odist mission in Rome. Having done this, the 
Vatican was closed to him. 

In reply to the warning note, with its reference 
to Fairbanks, Roosevelt sent this letter to the Pope, 
through our ambassador. 

"It would be a real pleasure to me to be 
presented to the Holy Father. ... I recognize his 
full right to receive or not to receive whomsoever 
he chooses. . . . On the other hand, I have the right 
to decline to make any stipulations which might 
limit my freedom of conduct. I trust that he will 
find it convenient to receive me." 

Roosevelt thus went to the full limit of conces- 
sion and courtesy. But a reply came the next day : 

"In view of the circumstances, for which neither 
His Holiness nor Mr. Roosevelt is responsible, an 
audience could not occur, except on the under- 
standing expressed in the former message." 

Thus the visit to the Vatican was not made. 
Anybody who knew the personal equation of 
Theodore Roosevelt could have forecast this result, 
so far as he was concerned. For the Roman 
Pontiff Roosevelt had very kindly feehngs, as he 
had also for many of his adherents. Probably that 



286 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

kindly old prelate had very little to do with the 
specious scheme. Merry del Val, his secretary, 
was doubtless the moving spirit in the matter. Of 
him Roosevelt said, "He is a polished man, of 
much ability in a narrow line, but a furiously 
bigoted reactionary; in fact, a good representative 
of a sixteenth-century Spanish ecclesiastic." 

This "Vatican incident" gave rise to large head- 
lines in the newspaper world, for a short time, but 
all intelligent persons, Protestant or Roman 
Catholic, read between the lines and deplored the 
super-subtlety of the Pope's secretary. The world 
over, men knew Roosevelt so well that they were 
sure his action meant simply that he would not be 
bound by any religious body in his freedom toward 
any other religious body. And the confidence of 
the Roman Catholics of the United States toward 
Roosevelt remained undisturbed. I myself recall 
one afternoon at Oyster Bay, when, as I was taking 
my departure after an hour or two of conversation, 
I met at the front door two Roman Catholic 
clergymen, coming with smiling confidence to call 
upon INIr. Roosevelt. As I exchanged a greeting 
with them, after I had left my host, one of them 
pointed toward the study where my classmate was 
waiting and whispered, in a warm, unconstrained 
way, "A real man, in there!" 

Roosevelt established free, friendly relations 



L 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 287 

with the Quirinal, seat of the Italian Government, 
without difficulty. He met and liked Victor Em- 
manuel, and this feeling was reciprocated. Speak- 
ing of the King, afterward, Roosevelt enjoyed 
throwing his friendly approval — as often he did — 
into a characteristic humorous Americanism. "I 
like him," he declared. "He is a genuine kind of 
man. He could carry his own ward in an election." 

So far as the masses of the people throughout 
Italy were concerned their attitude was one of en- 
thusiasm. So many of their relatives and friends 
had visited and lived in the United States that 
they were in close touch with our national affairs 
and Roosevelt's boundless popularity. A friend 
of mine writes me that she saw Roosevelt waiting 
at a railway station in Italy, and she saw several 
people kneel to him and try to kiss his hand. So 
much for Italian fervor and free expression. 

Busy and somewhat bored weeks passed in this 
touring of hospitable, enthusiastic Europe. The 
various populations knew the great champion of 
Democracy, and the crowned heads nodded to him 
with an unconventional friendliness. Like Benja- 
min Franklin at Paris a century or more before, 
Roosevelt, loving realities and respecting himself 
and his native land, met all nobles and dignitaries 
on a man-to-man basis. In fact, his new royal 
friends enjoyed the free, frank atmosphere which 



288 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

this well-bred American carried with him. For his 
part he wearied a little of it at times. One day, 
while he was busy, a card was sent up to him, — a 
card with a crest and other insignia. "Confound 
it!" he exclaimed, as he went to meet his visitor. 
"These kings bore me to death." 

Yet certain sensational American journals, 
famished for news, maintained that he conceded too 
much to the effete royalties of Europe, and that 
he regretted that our American system of govern- 
ment had no place for himself as monarch. He 
heard of this on his return, and exclaimed to W. R. 
Thayer, "Think of it! Some of those papers said 
I wanted to be a prince. Do you know what a 
prince is? He's a cross between Ward McAllister 
and Vice-president Fairbanks. How could any- 
body suppose that I would wish to be that !" 

Lawrence Abbott, of the Outlook, had joined 
Roosevelt at Khartoum, and traveling thenceforth 
with him, rendered him tactful, effective aid 
throughout his visits in European capitals. The 
volume of letters, appeals of all sorts, which poured 
in upon Roosevelt during the European tour, 
almost passes belief. Requests for money, invi- 
tations to lecture after he had reached home, 
advice sought on all possible questions, private and 
public. One morning's mail contained these items : 
"Applications for autographs, stamps, post cards; 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 289 

then inquiries about his views on the Bacon-Shake- 
speare controversj^ ; his opinion on the referendum 
in city affairs; description asked regarding a spe- 
cial kind of African antelope; an article desired 
for an American college paper; a request for an 
article on Hungarian emigration to the United 
States ; review desired of a book of poems, sent by 
the author; a brief article for a Young Men's 
Lyceum; on International Peace." 

Thus the requests poured in, and skillful, tactful 
Lawrence Abbott spared his chief all he could and 
met the naive requests with courtesy and efficiency. 

I can the better appreciate this volume of cor- 
respondence flowing in upon Roosevelt because, a 
few years later, I sat with him for an hour one 
day at his desk in the Metropolitan office, New 
York. He read aloud about thirty letters which 
had come in by the morning's mail, commented on 
them, and passed them over to his very competent 
secretary. Miss Josephine Strieker, who was to 
send full replies which he had briefly sketched. In 
this situation, as in so many, his sense of humor 
oiled the wheels of his routine work. The letters 
were as varied and impossible as can be imagined. 
One letter I recall, over which we three laughed 
aloud. It was from a man in Vermont. "I am 
thinking of buying a horse", it began. "And I 
write to you, Colonel, because you must have learned 



290 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

a good deal from your dealing with horses on your 
ranch. Now, the horse I have had offered me 
is . . ." and so on. Roosevelt sped through the 
badly written lines, really amused, I think, and 
passed it over to his secretary. From her the man 
in Vermont probably got a pleasant letter, which 
was not likely to do him any harm, at least. 

Among the monarchs of the earth with whom 
Roosevelt consorted was King Haakon of Norway. 
They dined and walked and talked together with 
much mutual satisfaction. Lawrence Abbott, who 
saw all, tells so good a story of our great Repub- 
lican, as he charmed away the medieval prejudices 
of Norwegian royalty, that I give it in detail: 

"Mr. Roosevelt was narrating his experience as 
a deputy sheriff in the ranching days. He was in 
pursuit of a red-handed border ruffian, and his 
friend. Sheriff Seth Bullock, was after the same 
criminal. Their official lines converged and finally 
met at a point where the pursued criminal lay dead 
on the ground. Then Roosevelt said, 'Your 
Majesty, you have been much in England and are 
familiar with grouse-shooting. So that I may tell 
you that Sheriff Bullock and I met, over that 
dead body, in the attitude of 'My bird, I believe?' " 

In Mr. Roosevelt's itinerary of triumphal prog- 
ress, Germany was included. The Kaiser was of 
course one of the most important personages on 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 291 

his "visiting list", for several reasons. And his 
relations with that individual had been somewhat 
involved. In the Venezuela affair, Roosevelt must 
have seriously jarred the arrogant poseur of 
Berlin. But Roosevelt had followed an intelligent 
and sustained policy toward him. This he divulges 
in a letter to Henry White, Ambassador to Rome, 
in August, 1906. 

"My course toward the Kaiser, during the last 
five years, has been uniform. I admire him, re- 
spect him, and like him. But he has intense ego- 
tism. I have tried to show him that I am friendly 
to him and to Germany. When I have forced him 
to give way I have tried to build a bridge of gold 
for him, thus helping him to preserve his dignity 
and reputation. In other words, when I have had 
to take a part of the kernel from him, I have been 
anxious that he should have all the shell possible, 
and have that shell painted in any way he wished." 

I give Roosevelt's estimate of the German Em- 
peror for what it is worth. It was formulated in 
1906. In 1916 and 1918 that opinion may have 
altered. Letters had been exchanged between the 
two world-leaders ; now they met and said pleasant 
words to each other ; but under all that intercourse, 
especially as read in these post-bellum days, there 
seems always present a guardedness, a watchful- 
ness, which betrayed a veiled mutual distrust. 



292 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

The Emperor showed his visitor every courtesy 
and tried in several ways to impress upon this 
powerful citizen of the American Republic the 
resources and the potentialities of his empire. As 
a feature of his hospitality, the Emperor invited 
Roosevelt to witness some maneuvers of his army. 
This reviewing lasted several hours; and Roose- 
velt, in speaking of it afterward, declared that 
Wilhelm "talked steadily." That may be. But 
I suspect that our fertile, fluent American did a 
larger part of the talking than he realized. While 
they were riding about together, the court pho- 
!tographer took a series of pictures of the two 
eminent men. And the Emperor later sent copies 
of these to Roosevelt, at Oyster Bay. On the 
backs of the photographs the Kaiser wrote hu- 
morous explanations. On one of them — a picture 
of the two on horses, with Roosevelt talking vigor- 
ously and the Emperor listening — is inscribed, with 
excellent humor: "The Colonel of the Rough 
Riders lecturing the chief of the German Army." 

A later incident is pertinent here, which is told 
about the visit of a prominent German- American 
(so called) to Oyster Bay, after Germany had 
invaded helpless, betrayed Belgium. The visitor 
reminded Roosevelt that the Emperor had shown 
Roosevelt greater honors at Berlin than he had 
ever before shown to any private individual. The 




liOOSKVEI.T TALKS WITH KAISER WILIIELM. 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 293 

drift of the man's artful words was apparent. 
Roosevelt sensed it; and his reply came promptly 
and sharply, "My relations with the Kaiser have 
been exactly the same as with the King of Bel- 
gium." 

England came last on Roosevelt's list, and his 
reception there was sympathetic and enthusiastic. 
He had given his Sorbonne lecture in Paris; and 
in London he gave his now famous "Guildhall 
Address." It created great confusion for a time 
— mainly protest and disapproval — but all that 
turmoil settled down soon into a reasonable ac- 
ceptance of the courageous American's reasonable 
words. He had simply told them that they should 
hold a tighter rein over their dependency, Egypt. 
As a discerning Englishman put it, he said, "Gov- 
ern or go." The recent assassination of Boutros 
Pasha gave point to his advice. John Bull frowned 
and blustered a little, annoyed that anybody should 
advise him about anything; but his good sense 
prevailed, and very soon he set on foot in Egypt 
wise, stern measures which probably grew out of 
Roosevelt's plain words. To illustrate the fitful- 
ness of popular favor and disfavor, I recall the 
well-known fact that this Guildhall address, which 
English newspapers made so much fuss about, was 
not a hasty composition, as some hasty critics hastily 
declared, but was prepared with great deliberation ; 



294 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

and its main points were laid before Earl Grey 
and others before it was delivered. 

An unexpected and mournful episode in Roose- 
velt's tour was his attendance of the obsequies of 
King Edward. The King had died on ]May 6, and 
President Taft had directed Roosevelt to act as 
a representative of the United States at the formal 
exercises. Much pomp and circumstance charac- 
terized the obsequies. Roosevelt and King Edward 
had been friends, and the death and loss came to 
our ex-President in a personal way. He bore his 
part in the sad duties. All the sovereigns of Eu- 
rope assembled in London to do honor to the il- 
lustrious dead. Incidentally, they made- calls upon 
Roosevelt, who was staying at Dorchester House 
with Ambassador Whitelaw Reid. And he was 
bored insufferably by much of their privileged and 
titled dullness. 

One of my classmates tells me that long after 
Roosevelt's return to our shores, the two men were 
recalling some of the incidents abroad. Said my 
friend, "There must have been vast crowds in the 
London streets, when the royal funeral cortege 
passed, and they were looking for the last time upon 
their king." "No," replied Roosevelt, with eyes 
twinkling, "they were engaged, principally, in 
looking at me/' The hasty, acrid reader, whose 
eye falls upon that last sentence, scoffs at its 



'I, 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 295 

egotism. But the keener reader smiles, with 
Roosevelt and my other classmate, and knows that 
it was absolutely true and is struck by the some- 
what mournful humor of it. Roosevelt was so 
truthful that he dared say even that. He was not 
spoiled by his unparalleled popularity, but he was 
not unaware of it. England had pretty well got his 
measure, if we may cite Rudyard Kipling's words 
as symptomatic of the national estimate of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. 

In a letter which Kipling wrote to Brander 
Matthews in 1910, he said, "Roosevelt has come 
and gone and done our state great service. Here 
you have one single-minded person saying and 
doing, quite casually, things which ought to set 
the world planning; instead of which the world 
says 'Thank you, please do it again.' Take care 
of him. He is scarce and valuable." 

My classmate, Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, 
has told me about a statement of Roosevelt's which 
serves to bring out one of the rare sides of his 
many-sided nature. The two friends were talking 
together one day, and Professor Hart remarked, 
"You have the reputation, Roosevelt, of being a 
very astute politician." 

This led Roosevelt to say these things. "I don't 
know or care what they mean by my being 'astute.' 
The whole thing is simply that I try to find out, at 



296 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

every step, what is the right thing to do, and then 
I do it. The difficulty is not in the doing, but in 
the finding what the right course is J" 

That is not the difficulty with most people. 
Their difficulty lies in willing and doing the right, 
after they are reasonably clear as to what it is. 
But Roosevelt's nature was so tremendously moral, 
his reaction toward the right, when discerned, was 
so automatic, that his only difficulty lay in his 
discernment of the right. And in many of his 
measures and "policies" — the Panama Canal and 
the Coal Strike, for examples — this was what gave 
him power. Once having seen his course clearly, 
according to his best insight and judgment, he 
moved toward it promptly and irresistibly. 

It was this simple, elemental, moral quality in 
Roosevelt that deceived — or, rather eluded — his 
rivals and enemies, through the greater portion of 
his career. When he said a thing he meant it. But 
they, by nature or training devotees of indirection, 
instantly began to cast about for his meaning, and, 
behold, it was laid there at their very door. "And 
they call that 'astuteness','' exclaimed my class- 
mate, with a smile of vast delight. 

I am reminded here, as I think of the high honors 
bestowed on Roosevelt at this period of his life, 
of the charges of mendacity which were hurled at 
him by his enemies, at several epochs. This charge 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 297 

of mendacity interests me, as an analyst of Roose- 
velt's character. It was a superficial, unscientific 
estimate, and was usually an outcome of hatred 
rather than of calm observation. Roosevelt was 
essentially sincere. His instinct for the truth was 
like that of the compass needle for the Pole. Yet 
no normal man of average intelligence but has told 
lies, great or small, many or few ; yet there is rarely 
any doubt of the standing of a man in his friends' 
and neighbors' estimation. A man is known as 
habitually truthful or mendacious, irrespective of 
any one fact in his record. And Theodore Roose- 
velt was almost fanatically a truth-lover, in him- 
self, in other people, in words and in deeds. But his 
personality, his psychology, shows in this, — that 
he lived intensely in each day or hour, rarely re- 
calling the dead past, and far more concerned with 
observing and estimating accurately to-day than 
with recalling his observations and estimates of 
yesterday. This habit of his played havoc with 
those tinsel consistencies which so torment your 
professional politician, — that creature who never 
puts himself on record if he can avoid it, and often 
finds it convenient to be absent when a measure is 
put to vote. 

I daringly said something of this sort to my 
classmate, one afternoon at Oyster Bay; and he 
took it equably, facetiously, yet approvingly. 



298 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

"This is what I say to people," I remarked, "who 
sneer at your Ananias Club and suggest that you 
make yourself president of it." He laughed. He 
knew well my absolute, lifelong devotion to him. 
And he replied, with a hearty laugh, "You special- 
ized in Psychology under William James, in 
college, I believe." 

With the utmost good nature, he spoke; and I 
answered, "Yes, and I am forever pursuing a post- 
graduate course in it." 

I forget the exact year of that visit and that bold 
scalpel-thrust of mine; but I do recall that he was 
friendly and fascinating. As I was leaving him 
he asked, in an instinctively lower tone — which I 
laughed at openly — "Is there anything I can do 
for you, Gilman?" And my reply was, with a 
warm grasp of his hand, "Not one thing; nothing, 
absolutely — except to allow me the continued joy 
of working to put you in positions of power, where 
you may go on fighting the good fight for right- 
eousness and truth." 

Then it was a bright smile from him and a 
"Good-by! I've been delighted to have this talk 
with you." 

Still holding that "Ananias Club" theme in 
mind, I append those eloquent words of Joseph 
Choate, in his address at the dedication of the 



HIS GREATEST VICTORY 299 

Harvard memorial window in St. Saviom* Church 
(Southwark, London), in May, 1905: 

"So considerable have been the contributions of 
Harvard's sons to the social and intellectual life of 
our nation that, if all other books and papers were 
destroyed, our country's history could be fairly 
reproduced from the Harvard University Cata- 
logue, and from what is known of the lives of the 
aJumni there registered. And if you ask me if she 
is still true to her ancient watchwords, Veritas and 
Christo et Ecclesiae, I can answer that in our own 
time, in a single quarter of a century, she has sent 
forth Phillips Brooks to be a pillar of Christ and 
the Church, and Theodore Roosevelt to be a cham- 
pion of the Truth." 



CHAPTER XV 

LAUREL AND CYPRESS 

The triumphal tour of the Roosevelt party 
through Europe drew to an end. And, from what 
my active, eager classmate wrote and said, it is 
evident that he had become bored with it before 
the end. He had enjoyed the novel experience of 
dwelling in marble halls and talking with titled 
persons. And he had found that they varied in 
character and intelligence precisely as did the peo- 
ple whom he had known in his native land, — fellow 
statesmen or neighbors at Oyster Bay. 

The qualities in him which had most appealed to 
his friends in the several European peerages were 
his newness and his apparent frankness ; previously 
they had flocked to Wilham Cody, "Buffalo Bill", 
admirable type of the American border-scout and 
manager of the bewildering "Wild West Show." 
Roosevelt was simply a later curio to them. But 
the astute ex-President was by no means as naive in 
his frank expressions of opinion as he seemed. 
Always, behind his daring and flattering frankness, 
there sat an intelligent estimate of how much direct 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 301 

statement they could bear. And behind his pic- 
turesque speech and frontier stories lay a back- 
ground of reserve and standards of cultivation 
quite equal to their own. 

So Roosevelt enjoyed it all, with that capacity 
for enjoyment so marked in him. And then he 
tired of it; he had sounded the good minds which 
he had met and had been amused at the foibles of 
the feebler folk; and now he longed for home and 
the environment which was native and dear to him. 

I know of nothing more like his own impulsive 
self than his sending from London for Sheriff Seth 
Bullock. He explained thus, "By this time I felt 
that I just had to meet my own people, who spoke 
my neighborhood dialect." That "neighborhood 
dialect" was stretching it a little. The simple fact 
was that Roosevelt loved and trusted that fearless, 
outspoken Black Hills sheriff and always had 
done so, since the two first met in the Far West, 
and Seth confessed presently, "Yer see, by yer 
looks I thought yer wuz some sort of a tin-horn 
gamblin' outfit, an' I might have ter keep my eye 
on yer." 

Sheriff Bullock and his wife went over, as 
Roosevelt desired; and the presence of this ex- 
ponent of the elemental human virtues rested 
Roosevelt, I think, and made the desired offset to 
the attentions of dukes and duchesses. 



802 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Roosevelt's relations with persons of more rudi- 
mentary social training than himself, whether in 
North Dakota or at Oyster Bay, or during a walk 
through Rock Creek at Washington, were always 
interesting to the analytic eye. Charles Washburn 
recalls a visit which he made to Sagamore Hill 
after Roosevelt's duties as President had termi- 
nated. And Roosevelt remarked, "I am a Demo- 
crat and a radical. I like to go to the Lodge 
(Masonic, not Cabot!) and sit on those hard 
benches while my cousin's gardener presides." 

An exquisite shading of this "democratic" qual- 
ity in Roosevelt comes out in a story told by Albert 
Loren Cheney. "At one of Mr. Roosevelt's recep- 
tions at Oyster Bay, two members of a reception 
committee held rather old-fashioned ideas as to 
conventional dress; and they appeared in plain 
business suits, while the other members of the 
committee wore Prince Albert coats and silk hats. 
The constraint was somewhat noticeable. And 
when the two men in business suits approached the 
President, his eyes twinkled, he raised his hands, 
and exclaimed, 'Here come the aristocrats.' " 

On Roosevelt's return to the United States, the 
popular enthusiasm was boundless. Probably 
never in the history of our country, during a peace- 
ful period, was so much admiration lavished on a 
plain citizen. In fact it became hysterical, no less. 




h^^^^: 




LAUREL AND CYPRESS 303 

Crowds thronged about him wherever he went, and 
evinced their enthusiasm in volleys of cheers. Jo- 
seph H. Choate, in a New York letter of June 22, 
1910, to his wife, says: 

"I was down town, all the afternoon, and, on 
my way up, I saw a tremendous crowd at Fifth 
Avenue and Twenty-second Street, filling the 
entire street. As it proved, they were simply wait- 
ing for Roosevelt to come out of Scribner's, and 
when he came out there was a rush and a crush, and 
a hurrahing as if King George V were coming, so 
that only with difficulty could he get into his auto ; 
and then it took two blocks before two mounted 
policemen could get him free of the crowd. All the 
same, he enjoyed it immensely." 

Of course he enjoyed it; but nobody saw better 
than he the fickleness of extreme popular favor 
like that. On several occasions, public and private, 
he spoke of it; he said, "It is hysterical; and when 
the popularity of a man has reached that stage, it 
can turn, in an instant, to opposition, antagonism, 
hate." At a cordial testimonial dinner given him 
at Sherry's, he said in substance, "On the ocean 
there are crests of waves, and hollows or troughs 
between waves. I have reached the crest, and I 
have enjoyed all. When the hollow comes, I will 
try to meet it as best I can." He was interrupted 



304 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

at this point by protests and cheers. But he smiled, 
shook his head, and repeated his words. 

Man of action, of adventure that he was, he 
was also a scholar. And he knew his history and 
biography too well to be deluded by the plaudits 
of the crowd. Doubtless he was familiar with 
Robert Browning's "Patriot", — "Thus I entered 
Brescia and thus I go." But this keen analysis of 
his environment, this relentless facing of facts, did 
not prevent him from enjoying the sunshine while 
he had it. And when the shadows came, and the 
sky darkened, and the faces of men — both chronic 
foes and apprehensive friends — frowned upon him 
he still kept his poise, wonderful man that he was ; 
he was dauntless amid the wreckage of his hopes; 
and nobly, "without capitulation", as Stevenson 
says, he moved forward over his Via Dolorosa. 

One of my classmates, a sturdy character, the 
repository of great wealth and important public 
duties, said to me excitedly, at our twenty-fifth 
anniversary, "There is nothing left for us. Life 
offers nothing to look forward to." "What do 

you mean, H ?" I asked. And he replied, 

"Why, this: We, as a class, as a group, by the 
supreme eminence of our great classmate, have 
reached the highest point possible in prestige and 
fame. Any further move must be downward." 

His feeling was right, but he was overwrought. 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 305 

Roosevelt had a similar feeling when he returned 
from across the sea, with the applause of Europe 
in his ears, — yet that applause was drowned by the 
vociferous adulation of his waiting fellow country- 
men. But, as so often before, his humor-sense re- 
lieved the tension. He said playfully to a friend 
one day at about this time, "I am like Peary at the 
North Pole ; there is no way for me to travel except 
south." 

In one sense he was correct. From the outer, 
worldly viewpoint, Roosevelt's course after his re- 
turn to the United States was downward, "toward 
the south." But, inwardly, subjectively, judged 
by those standards by which impartial History 
measures men, his course was ever upward until 
the end. And this book, from now on, even more 
than in previous pages, will aim at naming and 
translating the high heroic steps of his career. 

JNIention must be made first of the outward 
events, the political conditions in which he played 
his part. But only in a condensed way will they 
be treated. The supreme question for the analyst 
of Theodore Roosevelt's complex and phenomenal 
character is this, — how did he meet those stern 
events and harsh conditions? What effect did 
they have upon him ? What reactions did he show, 
as he moved along this dark, rocky defile of ad- 



806 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

versity, in comparison with his former reactions, 
when illumined by prosperity and success? 

The answer is that through all his later disap- 
pointments he abated not one atom of his high ideal- 
ism and pure, heroic purpose. There are football 
players upon every college team who play a good 
game so long as their side is winning. But when 
the game is going against them, they slacken, they 
weaken, and sometimes, in desperation, they resort 
to methods which they would have scorned when 
they were winning. Roosevelt was not of that base 
sort. He played as nobly, dauntlessly, heroically 
in his losing days as ever in the winning days. 
He remained the same individual, an American 
citizen of sublime intent, in the Progressive cam- 
paign and during his enforced absence from the 
European battle line, as when he held office at 
Albany, and in Mulberry Street, and in the White 
House. 

The events and conditions which followed his re- 
turn from Europe, briefly outlined, are these. He 
had made Mr. Taft, his friend, President. Not Taft 
only, but any man of a half dozen that could be 
named would have been put into the White House 
had he so directed. Such was his potent popularity 
among the people ; although the Republican bosses 
made wry faces in their councils as they conceded 
this fact. 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 307 

But Roosevelt had misjudged Taft, as often he 
misjudged men, under the bias of his tumultuous, 
emotional nature. In cool blood he read men's 
minds and hearts with piercing accuracy. But 
when his blood became heated — and it boiled at a 
low temperature ; yet be it added that it cooled with 
remarkable speed — when heated and excited, his 
power of sound judgment, as in most men, became 
inhibited; and he erred. He erred with regard to 
Taft. He thought that Taft was in entire accord 
with him, and, sharing his views, would continue 
his policies. But he was mistaken. And Taft, 
when left to himself, and especially when left to 
the influences of his friends, deviated from the 
Rooseveltian policies and — so Roosevelt believed, 
on his return from. Africa — was working harm to 
the Republican Party and to the nation. 

There is no need of my going into the details 
of Taft's measures and policies. At the best they 
are now but dry bones of the dead past. The inter- 
esting thing is Roosevelt's character and conduct 
through this period. Because his leadership of 
the Progressive Party, and -especially his antag- 
onism toward his former friend, are acts which 
have been hardest for the American people to 
understand. 

Let it be said here that there was no personal 
strain between Roosevelt and Taft. A report has 



308 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

gone forth that when Roosevelt set sail from New 
York, he sent a friendly farewell telegram to Taft, 
but was grieved or annoyed that Taft did not ac- 
knowledge this message for nearly fifteen months. 
That report is quite unfounded in fact. From 
personal letters read by me, I know that Taft sent 
a most friendly letter to Roosevelt just before he 
sailed. And Roosevelt's telegram to Taft, sent 
from the steamer, expected no reply and was itself 
a reply to the friendly Taft letter which I have 
mentioned. Taft did not write to Roosevelt during 
the African trip because he did not wish to disturb 
him in the enjoyment of his well-earned holiday. 
As he wrote Roosevelt on May 26, 1910, "I did not 
wish to invite your comment or judgment on mat- 
ters at long range, or to commit you in respect to 
issues which you ought perhaps only to reach a 
decision upon after your return to the United 
States." 

This was all fair and friendly on Taft's part. 
And Roosevelt, as he came back into American life, 
had no personal animus toward his successor. Sim- 
ply, as weeks passed and as he studied existing 
national and political conditions, and as he read 
the complaining letters which poured in upon him, 
he became estranged from at least the policies if 
not at first the person of the President. Then came 
the singular, unprecedented message and sum- 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 309 

mons to him from the "Seven Governors." They 
urged him, they laid upon him the solemn duty that 
he oppose Taft's renomination. 

Not at once, but after long, careful inquiry and 
reflection, he heeded this unparalleled summons. 
His own strengthening conviction was that his 
duty to the Republican Party and to the country 
necessitated such a step. 

At this point I present portions of an extremely 
interesting letter written at this time by Judge 
Robert Grant, of Boston, to a friend. It narrates 
incidents of a visit made to Judge Grant by Roose- 
velt, and is written in a personal, confidential man- 
ner. 

"T. R.'s visit to me was arranged January 23rd 
(1912), when he wrote asking if it would be con- 
venient for me to put him up, for the night of 
February 25th (Sunday), as he was coming on to 
a Harvard Overseers' meeting. He had a standing 
invitation to stay with me whenever he came to 
the Overseers' meetings. 

"You have already heard of the letter from the 
seven Governors and of his Columbus speech. . . . 
Of course that speech had set the country into 
convulsions, and every one was on tiptoe to know 
what his answer was to be, though it was generally 
assumed that 'Barkis was willing.' My house had 
suddenly become a storm center, not altogether to 



310 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

my relish, fond as I am of Theodore. All Sunday 
morning the telephone was kept very busy by 
newspapers and people who wished to communicate 
with him, and a small army of reporters had es- 
tablished itself near my house. 

"When T. R. arrived, at 3:30, he said he would 
not see any one until 5:30, and that he wished to 
tell my wife and me 'all about it.' So he sat down 
in our library and talked over two hours. At six 
o'clock he had a short interview with the reporters, 
downstairs, but gave them no inkling of what his 
response to the Progressive invitation would be. 
He told them that his decision would be announced 
from New York. 

"Three friends — invited at his request — came 
to dinner that evening, and sat with us until half- 
past eleven, the conversation — an absorbing mono- 
logue punctuated by questions — running mainly 
on the burning topic [the proposed Progressive 
Party]. Theodore seemed in perfect health. As 
he was starting upstairs for the night he stretched 
out his arms and exclaimed, 'I feel fine as silk.' It 
was just' midnight; and with the strenuosity of the 
day I myself was feeling a trifle jaded. 

"Next morning the news was in the newspapers; 
and our house became — until four o'clock — a po- 
litical headquarters. I fled to my court duties at 
nine, but my wife stood by the Penates. The 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 311 

Colonel had possession of the rooms, downstairs, 
and visitors were numerous, coming singly and in 
delegations — some from other states. 

"Some of the points which were brought out by 
our conversation, the evening before, were these. 
I asked, 'Has not every one of your friends ad- 
vised you against this step V He replied that every 
one had; but that he had deliberated long upon the 
matter and could not disregard the call made upon 
him by the seven Governors, — to do so would be 
cowardice. 'But you will agree that Taft has made 
a good President, this last year?' I suggested. He 
acquiesced, without enthusiasm, and added that 
Taft had left the Republican party in a condition 
of respectable inactivity. When I suggested that 
the public would say that he was disloyal to the 
President, it was evident that this did not disturb 
him. 

"Further, he said that he realized that the proba- 
bilities were all against his nomination; that a 
President in office has all the machinery on his side ; 
but that, of course, it would not do to admit, out- 
side, that he expected to lose. . . . Unquestionably 
he believes that we are on the brink of a great 
economic revolution, and that it is better that the 
Republican party should point the way than that 
the Socialists should lead. It was manifest that he 
believed that it was indispensable for the future 



312 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

good of the Republican party that he should make 
the breach. When he said as much, I asked: 'But 
the situation is complex, I suppose? You would 
like to be President.' 'You are right,' he replied, 
'it is complex. I like power; but I care nothing 
to be President as President. I am interested in 
these ideas of mine and I want to carry them 
through, and feel that I am the one to carry them 
through.' He said that he believed the most im- 
portant questions to-day were the humanitarian 
and economic problems, and that reforms were 
urgent. 

"Much as I admire him, I feel as if he has made 
an unnecessary mistake which threatens to be his 
Waterloo. And yet at the same time, I am so in 
sympathy with his desire for social justice that I 
am likely to be classed as one of his supporters. 
But I feel a little as if a Baby had been left on my 
doorsteps." 

Here I take up that most nearly insoluble prob- 
lem in Roosevelt's career, — his break with Taft. 
It is not really insoluble, not actually incompre- 
hensible, but complicated and intelligible only as 
one grasps the "springs of action" in Roosevelt's 
nature. Often I have heard people say, "I admire 
Roosevelt in all particulars except one. I cannot 
understand — or forgive — his going back on Taft, 
his friend." 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 313 

That statement argues well for the sound, 
wholesome heart of the speaker, but reveals that 
speaker's misapprehension of Roosevelt's mental 
and moral make-up. His affections were strong 
but his moral sense was even stronger. He felt 
deeply the call of friendship, but his devotion to 
duty, to right and truth as he understood them, was 
phenomenal, even fanatical. And the change of 
attitude which he underwent toward Taft he would 
have undergone toward his closest of kin, even 
toward a member of his own beloved family, under 
similar conditions. 

That stand, taken by Roosevelt against Taft, 
was either fanaticism or it was exalted patriotism. 
Call it, then, which you will. But I have stated the 
psychology, the ethics of it, as it appears to me. 

One of Roosevelt's striking acts at this period, 
while his possibilities as the Republican candidate 
were pending, was his Columbus, Ohio, speech, on 
February 21, 1912. In that speech he set forth 
his now well-known measure, the "Recall of Ju- 
dicial Decisions." Reports of this measure — in a 
distorted, incorrect form, the "Recall of Judges" 
— spread quickly over the whole country; and it 
aroused much sharp opposition; it was held to be 
revolutionary and anarchic. As a "Recall of 
Judges" it would indeed have been very radical; 
but it was only a recall of their decisions. And 



314 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

such a recall — as Roosevelt wrote me personally 
— should come only after giving the people several 
months in which to reach a cool, calm opinion. 

Taking this Columbus speech in this, its real and 
moderate form, it interests me in two ways. First, 
it was an astonishing act of courage or defiance; 
Roosevelt must have known that it would arouse 
the entire legal profession and thousands of other 
persons against him. Second, I see in this "Recall 
of Judicial Decisions", this check and correction 
laid upon the courts, a consistent expression of 
Roosevelt's life-long distrust of legal prestige and 
power. All through his life — at least after his 
brief study of law in his uncle's office — he dis- 
trusted the absolute authoritative integrity of the 
legal profession. He numbered many trained at- 
torneys among his friends, but his distrust lay 
rooted under all, nourished by his experiences with 
New York courts. Further, his plea for the 
"Recall" expressed his profound democratic belief 
in the authority of the body of the people over 
against any class or privilege. He was the most 
consistent, democratic Republican that this coun- 
try ever produced. 

So he made his daring, consistent, conscientious 
"suicidal" speech, which further included the radi- 
cal but less inflammatory suggestions of the Initia- 
tive and the Referendum, and took what came of it. 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 315 

What came of it was the renomination of William 
Howard Taft by the bosses, sometimes called the 
"Old Guard", of the Republican Party. 

The "Old Guard", posing as the Republican 
Party, ruled out unmanageable Theodore Roose- 
velt, who could have swept the country as the Re- 
publican nominee; but it failed to elect its candi- 
date; and it threw the election to the Democratic 
candidate, Woodrow Wilson. Thus the bosses of 
the Republican Party split that party through their 
own jealousy and greed of power, when they might 
have steered it to victory. The final vote proved 
this. The election of November 5, 1912, gave the 
result: about fifteen million votes were cast; 
Wilson received about six million ; Roosevelt about 
four million, and Taft about three million. If the 
total votes for Roosevelt and Taft had been thrown 
as one vote for Roosevelt as a Republican candi- 
date, he would have been elected by over a million 
votes; but the Republican bosses would then have 
lost their control, even as they actually lost it by 
the election of Wilson. 

As soon as it became clear that Roosevelt had 
been shut out of the Republican nomination, which 
the party as a whole desired for him — shut out of 
it by meticulous and even perverted applications 
of legal technicalities and precedents, in the Con- 
vention — ^then the Progressive Party began to 



316 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

take fuller form. And it held its convention at 
Chicago on August 5. 

Two impressions I give, concerning that remark- 
able assembly, out of the many equally vivid ones 
which press for utterance. First, I recall the 
marked moral and even religious character of that 
Convention, contrasting strongly with the adroit 
manipulation and smooth, steam-roller action 
which had prevailed at the Republican convention. 
Those Progressive delegates may or may not have 
been in error, but at least that convention never 
was surpassed, in its high idealistic quality, by any 
political gathering in history, ancient or modern. 

And there, among those highly wrought indi- 
vidualists, the delegates — where the "lunatic 
fringe" was often plainly in view as they conferred 
and debated over that bone of contention, the 
platform of the new party — among them moved 
Roosevelt, calmest and steadiest of them all, a 
miracle of self-possession, with the fires of his 
heart banked into submission, leading his almost 
frenzied followers to a goal of agi^eement and a 
harmony of purpose. As one of the California 
Progressives said, "Only the courage, tact, and 
steadiness of Colonel Roosevelt prevented a smash- 
up. There was almost hysteria in the ranks, due 
to overwork and insomnia. But Roosevelt, who 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 317 

had worked harder and slept less than any of them, 
kept also the coolest head." 

That testimony is significant as bearing upon the 
question of the mental health, the sanity, of our 
great leader. For the charge of mental derange- 
ment was one of the several shallow, ridiculous 
charges brought against him by superficial critics 
and desperate enemies. An alienist of good repute 
in New England published at this period an article 
which, without using Roosevelt's name openly, was 
an evident and savage attack upon him, and set 
forth proofs of his mental unsoundness at great 
length. One of the leading newspapers in Boston 
declined to print the fallacious article, but another 
accepted it. This unjust attack was only one of 
numerous onslaughts made on Roosevelt's condi- 
tion and capacity. But, through them all, as 
through a shower of missiles, that brave man strode 
on, with a soundness and steadfastness which was 
not like that of a broad-based, commonplace 
earthen jar, but like the elasticity and vitality of 
a wind-scourged, pliant sapling, bending and often 
seeming to yield, but ever regaining its vertical 
poise, the poise of health and strength. 

Apropos of the methods used in the Republican 
Convention of 1912 at Chicago, I will quote my 
classmate, Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of 



318 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Government at Harvard University. He was a 
delegate-at-large to the Convention. 

"In the Chicago Convention, all the evidence 
obtainable showed that a majority of the Repub- 
lican voters, the country over, preferred Roosevelt ; 
while the majority of the delegates elected pre- 
ferred Taft. Had Roosevelt started in a month 
earlier, he would have secured about twenty more 
delegates; and, in the judgment of many people 
on the ground, that addition of twenty on one side 
and their subtraction from the other side would 
have turned the scale. The decision was really 
made by the southern delegates, who personally in- 
clined to Roosevelt, but were chosen by methods 
which put them into the hands of the other side. 

"By a close vote, the Taft forces got control of 
the machinery of the Convention. The Roosevelt 
men made it their business to show that there was 
a strong body of Roosevelt supporters who would 
vote for him to the last. Hence the unceasing 
volume of cheers and demonstrations. The man- 
agement was so exasperated that Chairman Root, 
by a ruling absolutely contrary to all the prece- 
dents of the Republican Convention, held that no 
member could be present and decline to vote; and 
thereby subtracted two votes from the Massachu-, 
setts delegation, which was tied. The Roosevelt 
delegates felt that the will of the party had been 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 319 

scandalously disregarded and most of them wel- 
comed the 'Bolt' as the only means of protecting 
popular government." 

After the Progressive nomination was given 
Roosevelt, amid an enthusiasm never transcended 
in history, came the campaign for the November 
election. In that campaign I bore my humble part. 
It is difficult, in these discreet and cautious days, 
to find men who were Progressives in those glorious 
days of 1912. There is a singular ignorance of it, 
often in quarters where it was supposed to have 
taken deep root and flourished. All men to-day 
who lay claim to at least average intelligence, 
affirm the greatness of the leader of that splendid 
protest against machine rule. But not all of whom 
I would have expected it are ready to avow their 
old-time sharing in that reform movement. There- 
fore let me here make it clear that I was a Pro- 
gressive, and by pen and tongue and purse gave 
all the aid I could to put our "Greatest American 
citizen" into our "greatest seat of power", — the 
White House. Bearing in mind Mr. Dooley's 
piquant sketch entitled, "Alone in Cubia", I emu- 
late him in his charming disregard of arithmetical 
accuracy, and I declare, with a smile, that at least 
one other hat — mine — was "in the ring" with 
Roosevelt's. 



320 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Seriously, recalling the events of 1912, I do not 
find that 

"The leaves of memory seem to make 
A mournful rustling in the dark." 

On the contrary, I look back upon that thrilling 
period as through a rainbow arch of beauty. The 
old days of romance and sentiment, the days of 
crusades and holy quests, seemed to have come 
again. This old brown earth, though old, was 
not sterile, and had produced in our time one who 
rivaled King Arthur and Richard the Lion- 
hearted. We sought to tear Wrong from the 
throne and Truth from the scaffold, but in vain, 
at least largely in vain. The will of the people, 
a people who believed itself self-governed, was 
thwarted; and the will of a half-dozen political 
bosses, miscarrying, set a man in the White House, 
who — to use my illustrious classmate's own words 
— ■ was "not an idealist, but a selfish, dishonest poli- 
tician." 

One of the "high lights" of that glorious Pro- 
gressive campaign was the startling yet heartening 
episode of the attack on Roosevelt, at Milwaukee, 
by an insane man, Schrank. At once the broad, 
deep sympathy of a whole nation went out nobly 
toward the victim of the bullet. Then our Progres- 
sive hearts throbbed proudly as we read how 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 321 

splendidly our leader had met that dreadful expe- 
rience. Dauntless he was, in deed as in word; no 
stage hero he; no sonorous orator he, like Cicero, 
whose recreant legs bore him safely away from the 
tumults which his golden voice had raised; but an 
earnest man with a message to his nation and ready 
to die in the endeavor to deliver that message. We 
devotees could not love him more, but we hoped 
that the incident would reveal his noble quality 
more fully to the nation at large. 

About a year after this shooting outrage, I was 
visiting my classmate at Oyster Bay. As we sat 
in return, took my key at once — as he so easily did, 
on your mantel, thinking I might see Schrank's 
flattened bullet there, in a vial." My host smiled 
in return, took my key at once — as he so easily did, 
with people he trusted — and rephed, "I haven't 
put that missile up on exhibition yet. I may 
sometime. But now I've got it safe here — " smit- 
ing his big, full chest a mighty blow — "It's safe 
enough, anyway. And it's mine, all mine, too." 

Little wonder it was that the popular mind was 
much confused and misled, in those heated cam- 
paign days, about the Progressive candidate. 
Ninety-eight per cent, of the newspapers of the 
country were against him. Many editorial writers 
believed what they wrote, but many did not. I 
knew one who wrote against him for months, but 



322 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

on the wall of that man's bedroom hung a photo- 
graph of Theodore Roosevelt; and one of his 
newspaper companions declared that he said his 
prayers to it. Such was the power of the counting- 
room and such was the insistence of household 
needs. 

Among the wild, absurd, impossible canards that 
flew about in those exciting days, I know of noth- 
ing more ludicrously extreme than this. I was 
called to my telephone one evening, and a friend, 
a fellow Progressive, spoke to me. Said he, "A 
business man of my acquaintance, from Georgia, 
is here in Boston. He tells me that in his city this 
story is generally believed; namely, that at a ban- 
quet there recently, Roosevelt was a guest, that he 
drank to excess, and that after all guests had left 
the dining hall, Roosevelt slipped back into it and 
drained the dregs of several wine glasses." 

My friend, over the telephone, began to follow 
up this grotesque and ghastly lie with apologies 
for taking my time with it. But I broke in with 
a half-hearted laugh, which he gladly echoed. "Of 
course it's a lie," I said. And he responded, "There 
couldn't be a bigger one." 

So extreme was the antagonism toward Roose- 
velt at that period, so completely did it inhibit 
sound judgment and common sense. 

At several meetings of Progressive leaders, the 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 323 

untinje, libelous attacks by newspapers were dis- 
cussed and lawsuits were suggested but were not 
brought. Roosevelt himself was fully aware of 
all these scurrilous attacks, and they irritated him 
appreciably. But he did nothing about them — 
except to give the lie to the more nearly respectable 
of them — and then, after the contest was over, and 
the country, with that remarkable equilibrium 
which characterizes it, settled quickly into place 
and peace, then Roosevelt, having fought the lions 
and nobler beasts of the campaign, turned his at- 
tention to the hyenas and jackals who had hung 
on the trail of the nobler animals. He picked out 
a typical case of libel; an editor of a newspaper 
in Michigan had declared in print that Roosevelt 
got drunk frequently. Roosevelt brought a suit 
against the wretched man, trial by jury came on, 
lasted one week, and a verdict was returned, in 
Roosevelt's favor, for the nominal sum of six cents. 
This was the result which he had desired, complete 
vindication without doing too much harm to the 
loose-tongued, contemptible culprit. 

In trying to explain to myself the scandalous 
rumors about drunkenness which Roosevelt's ene- 
mies — and even shallow friends — encouraged, 
especially during the heated Progressive campaign, 
I have recalled my classmate's excited manner in 
conversation and at dinner parties; and I have 



324 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

seen that a casual observer, noting his eager, 
animated speech and gestures, and noting, for 
instance, wine glasses in general use, might easily 
have been led to associate the two facts and to say 
that in Roosevelt the wine caused the animation. 
But such a judgment as that would have been 
foundationless. It was his own eager spirit that 
gave animation to his words and actions. A class- 
mate said this to me recently, "Theodore was the 
most abstemious of men. He didn't know the 
difference between whisky and gin. I have sat 
at public and private dinners with him often. He 
didn't care what he ate or drank. His great in- 
terest was intellectual, moral, and humane ques- 
tions. If I had invited him and a half-dozen other 
friends to dine, and my cook had failed me, I would 
have worried less about Theodore than about any 
of the other guests." 

There is another enlightening explanation of 
the wicked, absurd rumors about intoxication which 
John Leary gives. "I was with Roosevelt and 
other friends at Oyster Bay, just after the trial 
of the Michigan editor. Our host passed around 
the cigars, remarking that he could not vouch for 
them because he did not smoke, but that Leonard 
Wood gave them to him and Wood knew. Some- 
body then asked Roosevelt if he ever smoked. And 
his reply touched the drinking scandal. 'Often, 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 325 

when I have declined a cigar, my friend has asked 
lightly, "And what are your bad habits?" and I 
have replied, in a similar mood, Prize fighting 
and strong drink. Now it happens', continued 
Roosevelt, 'that the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, 
elected to create some persons with whom it is 
never safe to joke — solemn asses who lack a sense 
of humor. One of those persons to whom I made 
that jocular remark said to somebody else, "Roose- 
velt I have heard drinks hard." And that other 
fool confirmed it : "Yes, I know he does ; he told me 
so himself." And so the story went on its travels.' " 
I fear that we Progressives were more or less 
made up like that groping company in Adullam's 
cave. So kind, sad friends told us often. But not 
wholly; probably only the "fringe" was "lunatic." 
Not all the members of that gallant company could 
be described as "in distress or in debt or discon- 
tented." The "Mighty Three" must not be for- 
gotten, they of the dauntless, deathless loyalty. 
Many there were among us of that strain. And 
they fought and hoped — yes, and prayed — for 
they knew that their cause was just. But "The 
children of darkness are, in their generation, wiser 
than the children of light." And victory was 
denied those devoted crusaders, while Truth crept 
sorrowfully back upon his scaffold and Wrong 
vaulted gayly to his unmerited throne. 



326 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

The defeat at the polls was hard for most of us 
to accept, especially as we were convinced that the 
people as a whole had desired Theodore Roosevelt 
to be their President. As for Roosevelt himself, 
if he was borne down by the defeat, even temporar- 
ily, few saw evidence of it. Perhaps we loyal 
followers overestimated the burden of his disap- 
pointment. But he had been, through the eager, 
anxious months, our mighty Atlas, bearing up our 
world, and we felt deep gratitude and longed to 
spare him all we could. 

When one takes into the account Roosevelt's 
wonderful dynamic equation, his combative per- 
sonality, his always joyous championship of justice 
and truth, irrespective of results, the conclusion is 
naturally reached that he by no means regretted 
his attempt at reform of party weakness and boss 
tyranny, and he might easily have paraphrased 
and cheerfully repeated the trite old lines, " 'Tis 
better to have fought and lost, than never to have 
fought at all." 

In a recent conversation with James Ford 
Rhodes, he spoke thus of Theodore Roosevelt. *'I 
knew him through many years, and always I rec- 
ognized him as a great man. He was our greatest 
President since Lincoln. And he was the most 
bookish man we ever had in the White House, 
despite all the emphasis he put on sports and out- 



LAUREL AND CYPRESS 327 

door life. He had rare powers of insight ; and he 
could almost foresee coming events. A consistent 
man he seemed to me, too, despite the changes in 
his views which have sometimes misled people's 
judgments of him. He gi-ew steadily, all through 
his career; that growth explained his changes in 
opinion. His transparent honesty and sincerity 
was a winning quahty. To this quality — and a 
physical and moral courage which could never be 
questioned — he added a large intelligence and a 
rare power of combining ideas into cohesive 
thought. Lincoln and Washin^on were his 
ideals." 

When I mentioned the Progressive Party, with 
Roosevelt as its leader, Mr. Rhodes shook his head. 
"I doubt if Roosevelt acted wisely in that," said he. 

I responded cheerfully that I believed that he 
had done exactly the brave though partly unsuc- 
cessful thing which needed to be done. 



CHAPTER XVI 

VALIANT FOR TRUTH 

I come now to the last chapter of this interpre- 
tation of the character of Theodore Roosevelt. 
And, as I glance back over the pages already- 
written, I see that I am ending where Virgil began : 
it is arma virumque caivo; and would that I had 
the inspired pen to chant, in rhythmic strophes, the 
epic of his dauntless, consecrated life. He was 
armor-clad, sword in hand, a "Happy Warrior." 
He was an ethical idealist, — not in words, merely, 
but in daring deeds and sustained industry, en- 
during privations and accepting vicissitudes. 
Dauntless in the face of danger, generous in the ! 
hour of victory. I 

Roosevelt's moral idealism, attested by his every 
deed, is what most commands my admiration and 
devotion. This element in a great leader's char- 
acter is what determines his lasting fame before that 
mighty court — supreme over all other courts — 
World Opinion. The world may be dazzled for a 
time by the unscrupulous meteor-like career of a 
Napoleon Bonaparte or a Frederick the Great; 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 329 

but it places in its permanent Pantheon of exalta- 
tion only such steadfast, star-like idealists as 
Abraham Lincoln, Chinese Gordon, Francis of 
Assisi, Georges Clemenceau and Theodore Roose- 
velt. 

As I pass and repass over the incidents of his 
life, shaping and reshaping my conceptions of 
him, I hold all to be true of him that I have pre- 
viously affirmed; but now, nearing the end, I 
exclaim: "How wonderfully and ceaselessly this 
man developed under the schooling of life!" No one 
preeminent quality in him made him great. He 
had the ordinary faculties possessed by his fellow 
men — will, memory, insight, patience, courage — 
only he had them in an extraordinary degree, each 
highly developed, none rudimentary, an assemblage 
of qualities essentiallj'' human but so fully devel- 
oped in him that he was not merely "Man"; but as 
Oscar Straus declared to me, with conviction and 
repetition, "He was superman." 

His chosen field of study, in college days as 
afterward, was not political economy or sociology 
or government, but it was a cross-section of all 
these which we might call "Apphed Morals", 
morahty applied to life, worked out in individuals 
and groups. No abstractions pleased him; but 
righteousness in terms of tenement houses, sweat- 
shops, corporations, courts, criminals, wages, 



330 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

trusts, — all these problems, with their human in- 
terest, called upon his insight and judgment and 
courage. And among these conditions and forces, 
as on a battlefield among cohorts and battalions, 
he fought joyously, gloriously, and life to him was 
a boon and a blessing. 

It might seem that at this point in his life, having 
filled acceptably such high public offices and having 
made such a triumphal tour abroad, he would find 
few interests left him during his waning years. 
Indeed, he said this very thing to me, at Sagamore 
Hill one day: "I am through, I fancy, with the 
active part of my life. Henceforth the place for 
a man of my age is the hearth-side and with the 
grandchildren." But his eyes were bright, even as 
he said this, and his expression was playful, and 
I knew that the lion in him would rouse easily and 
instantly, on challenge. 

This playful plea of my strenuous classmate was 
only the merest pretence. He knew himself well 
and knew that "the call of the wild" would be 
potent over him to the end of his days. Theodore 
Roosevelt, with his frank, direct nature, was very 
unlike the "Wily Odysseus" of ancient Greek 
tradition. But he had many points in common 
with Tennyson's "Ulysses." As I read that poem, 
I come to the line, 



I 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 331 

"I cannot rest from travel. I will drink 
Life to the lees. . . ." 

And I am reminded of our illustrious, active 
American. He was eager to explore new regions 
of the earth ; he desired to experience every human 
emotion. Hence, in 1913, when the opportunity 
came to travel into the wilderness of South 
America, he accepted it. It was an expedition 
fraught with perils and privations, at its best; and, 
in his case, it exhausted him and took years from 
his life. This he knew well and admitted, on his 
return. And thousands of saddened friends, in 
1918, said to one another, "But for that deadly 
trip into the wilds of Brazil, our 'Greatest Amer- 
ican' could become our 'President in 1920." 

The original object of the expedition was the 
securing of flora and fauna from the central 
plateau of Brazil. Roosevelt's great interest in 
natural history made this prospect extremely at- 
tractive. But, at Rio Janeiro, the Brazilian Min- 
ister suggested that Colonel Roosevelt join in with 
the plans of Colonel Rondon, an experienced 
Brazilian explorer, and trace the course of a 
slightly known river, the Rio da Duvida (River 
of Doubt). This plan was carried out. 

A detailed account of the vicissitudes of this 
deadly trip has been written out by Roosevelt in 
a book, "Through the Brazilian Wilderness." The 



332 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

wonder is that any one of the Roosevelt party 
survived the exhausting experiences. All of them 
were in bad condition when they returned to New 
York, and the leader himself, at that time fifty- 
five years old, was manifestly at low ebb. 

An interesting and very "human" incident which 
occurred on Roosevelt's journey from New York 
City down to Oyster Bay has been given me by 
Charles K. Bolton, of the Boston Athenaeum. 
After the train had started from New York, 
Roosevelt was told that a considerable number of 
fellow townsmen had come up to the city in order 
to travel back with him and shake hands with him. 
He was in a very fatigued and even weakened con- 
dition; but, on learning this, he started on a tour 
through the train and gi'eeted every friend. He 
ended this wearying little tour in the baggage car, 
where he sat down to rest on a trunk. Presently 
he asked a friend, who was standing near him, if 
he could get him a glass of water. This was done 
speedily. Just as he was about to drink, a little 
dog, who was fastened as "baggage" at the end of 
the car, whined a plaintive request for some of that 
water. 

Instantly Roosevelt noted the thirsty little ani- 
mal's need and wish, carried the glass of water over 
to the animal, drank half of it, and gave the eager 
little creature the remainder. 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 333 

It was a characteristic act. He, the hunter of 
big game, who had killed lions and bears and many 
savage beasts, never lost that tender sympathy 
with petted dogs and horses which always charac- 
terized at least three Roosevelt generations. Sav- 
age, man-eating beasts of forest and jungle were 
quite different, in Colonel Roosevelt's estimation, 
from the loving, trusting, dependent animals of 
the household whom we make our pets. 

A disastrous enterprise the Brazilian trip had 
proved to be. "The River of Doubt" — now called 
by official order Rio Teodoro — had been discov- 
ered, but at too gi'eat a cost. Roosevelt, after 
manifesting the most inflexible courage and forti- 
tude, came back to civilization sick and enfeebled, 
and with at least a decade of years cut out of his 
life. But such years as he had remaining he filled 
with acts of the finest fiber of American citizenship. 
After a few months of rest and recuperation, he 
rose nearly to his former level of efficiency, — or 
outwardly appeared to. Then came the challenge 
to his lion-like nature, — his beloved country's great 
need of leadership in the days when Germanj^ was 
threatening the rest of the world and the man in 
the White House was elaborating his "watchful 
waiting." "Waiting?" For what? Waiting for 
an indignant, humane nation to force him into a 
righteous war. 



334 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

President Wilson's apologists urge that he could 
not safely and wisely have moved toward war 
"until he had the country behind him." But the 
reply to that plaintive, dove-like cooing is that had 
he been a real leader, he could have led them to 
action a year before they reached it, — dragging 
him along with them. Had Theodore Roosevelt 
been President he would have been a real leader; 
he would have brought the people — by speeches 
and proclamations — a year earlier to that goal of 
just and valorous knight-errantry toward which, 
unaided from the White House, they were blindly 
groping their way. 

Lyman Abbott — perspicacious man — said to 
me anent the Mexican internal troubles, just then 
under full headway, "If Theodore Roosevelt were 
President he would settle and quiet Mexico in one 
month. Such is his power of stimulating leader- 
ship." And the same principle would have held 
true of the vastly larger, more complex World 
War. 

While the pacifistic occupant of the White 
House dallied with his obvious duty and the people 
became more and more impatient at his indiffer- 
ence and timidity, Roosevelt busied himself, day 
and night, by tongue and pen, in voicing the rising 
tide of popular demand that we take part in the 
defense of justice, freedom, and world-civilization. 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 335 

Although many Pacifists and pro-Germans raised 
a hue and cry against his efforts, Roosevelt became 
steadily the incarnated demand of the American 
people for righteous participation in the war. 

In this voicing of the wish and will of the people, 
Roosevelt was much aided by his confidential rela- 
tions with the newspaper men of the country. 
John Leary, Jr., has given us a very interesting 
chapter on the singularly intimate terms on which 
Roosevelt lived with the reporters or correspond- 
ents of the great New York dailies. They hung 
about him at Oyster Bay, even in his days of de- 
feat, like a guard of honor. They knew, with a 
newspaper man's instinct, that although he was 
under the shadow of official disapproval, yet, as a 
private citizen, he stood foremost in the country, 
and his influence was more potent than that of any 
other man. 

By their tact and intelligence and admiration, 
those reporters knew how to adjust themselves to 
the sometimes imperious yet always generous, ten- 
der will of the man about whom they gathered. 
They formed a brilliant little coterie and liked to 
think of themselves as a "newspaper cabinet", 
after the fashion of the intimate "Tennis Cabinet" 
of former days at Washington. 

All through his life Roosevelt, more than any 
known public man, had depended on newspaper 



336 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

men; through them, treated squarely, he had been 
able to thwart the wiles of party leaders and make 
himself understood by the "Plain People", — his 
real source of power. He always established trust- 
ful and even affectionate relations with them. He 
was once a guest of the Illinois Bar Association 
at a dinner. Several of the members of the "news- 
paper cabinet" followed him, but were kept out- 
side. When, half through the dinner, he learned 
that they were not allowed to be present, he left 
the table and joined them in the grill of the hotel, 
remaining there much longer than the presiding 
officer of the dinner wished. 

But the incident — and others like it — bound 
him and the newspaper men over the whole country 
closely together, even though many of those men, 
at times, were compelled to conceal their sympa- 
thies. 

The genuine affection in which that "cabinet" — 
picked men — at Oyster Bay held him was evinced 
at the sad end, when they learned that he had died. 
John Leary gives the tender touch to that situa- 
tion, thus: 

"The taxicab driver was taking two reporters 
back to the station from Sagamore Hill, on the day 
when its master left it on his last journey. 'Brace 
up, Phil!' said one. 'We'll soon be in town. Pull 
yourself together!' 'Shut up, you fool!' blubbered 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 337 

the other. 'You're crying just as hard as I am.' " 
During the highly wrought ante-war period, 
aided by the more independent newspapers, Roose- 
velt — it has been said by competent judges — did 
a greater work than when in the presidential chair. 
He was tireless in summoning the nation to rise 
from its ease and lethargy and to heed its con- 
science and its heart, as the continued tyrannies 
and atrocities of Europe were reported in this 
country. Through it all, with Pacifists and pro- 
Germans synchronizing in their extremely militant 
demands for peace, he kept on his way. He was 
again in battle, this warrior, and he was happy, 
yet anxious withal. His faith in the American 
people — true democrat that he was — never' really 
failed. 

Julian Street gives a few flashing lines of com- 
ment worth remembering. "Well may we be 
thankful that Roosevelt lived to see his profound 
faith in us justified, lived long enough to see us 
take up arms, in answer to his repeated calls, to 
see us quit the life of ease for that of strenuous 
endeavor. That the poison of Pacifism did not 
ruin our nation was due largely to the fact that we 
had Theodore Roosevelt as an anti-toxin." 

When, after a laggard year had dragged itself 
along, came the declaration of war, April 6, 1917, 
not many days elapsed before Roosevelt made his 



338 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

suggestion of sending across a regiment or even a di- 
vision of men made up of former Rough Riders and 
similar men — all over the draft age — with ex- 
penses paid by private subscription, with equip- 
ment furnished by the Allies, and thus not con- 
flicting with the plans of the regular army. He 
was to go with it, but not as its commander. There, 
as in the Spanish War, his good sense and modesty 
showed. 

Everything looked favorable. Men volunteered 
for this division by hundreds, and a quota could 
easily have been raised. But — the President did 
not favor it. Senator Warren G. Harding placed 
a resolution before the Senate, in harmony with 
Roosevelt's suggestion. It passed the Senate and 
hung, for a time, in the House; but eventually it 
passed. But — the President would not sign it. 
He said that it would interfere with the plans of 
the regular army. A flimsy reason. 

Roosevelt, eager, anxious to take part in the 
great world conflict, humbled himself to the seek- 
ing of an interview with the President in the White 
, House. In vain. "Had I said to a man what 
2 Wilson said to me," remarked Roosevelt after- 
\ ward, "it would have meant a permission. But it 
/ was Wilson who said it, and Wilson is — well, I 
don't know." 

That was Wilson's evasiveness. "Being by na- 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 339 

ture and inclination secretive" — as ex-Secretary 
Lansing has expressed it — he left the matter 
cloudy, in Roosevelt's eager, anxious mind. Then 
came those ominous, terrible words of Roosevelt's, 
as cited by Leary, "It is the regret of my life that 
I am not permitted to serve. Had I been per- 
mitted to go across, there need not have been any 
fear felt as to political glory to be reaped by me, 
for I would never have come hack.'* 

That awful statement meant that he knew his 
limited resources of health and strength, and he in- 
tended to give all — yes, consecrate and expend 
himself in this enterprise, and die on a European 
battlefield — in behalf of world- justice and a 
righteous peace. 

Such an avowal of martyr-purpose would not 
mean, from some men, all that it meant from 
Roosevelt. But we know him, and we know that 
he would have carried out his intention. It makes 
me recall by contrast the prophetic words of my 
friend, Judge Marcus P. Knowlton, regarding 
Wilson in the beginning of Wilson's presidential 
term: "We must not expect the highest things of 
Mr. Wilson." And we learned that. In pain and 
sorrow, in regret and despair, we learned it. But 
with Roosevelt w^e learned to expect the highest, 
the heroic things. And our dauntless leader never 
failed us. 



340 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

But that humiliating personal and hopeless ap- 
peal to the autocrat of the White House marks 
for me the nadir of my classmate's adversity and 
pain. Think not that he would have made that ap- 
peal for any personal gain. To die were easier. 
But for his country's fair fame, for the rescue of 
civihzation in Europe — for the welfare of the 
world — for all these he bowed himself and became 
a supplicant. In vain. 

As a document bearing very directly and per- 
sonally upon this period in Roosevelt's career, I 
oifer a letter of recent date, written to me by 
Frederick H. Allen, my classmate and Roosevelt's. 

New York, March 24, 1921. 
My dear Gilman: 

I have just received your letter regarding your 
"Life of Roosevelt" and am very glad to answer it. 

You will recollect that Congress, shortly after 
the declaration of war, on April 6th, 1917, passed 
a resolution to allow the formation of a volunteer 
force not to exceed one hundred thousand men. 
This resolution was passed for the purpose of per- 
mitting Roosevelt to organize this force. This, 
with the aid of a staff of workers, his friends, was 
almost complete and hundreds were enrolling every 
day. What was lacking was the permission of the 
President to make it a recognized body, and a part 
of the army. 

Mr. Roosevelt had tried in vain to get this per- 
mission from the President; and he finally asked 
me, as his friend and as a life-long Democrat and 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 34-1 

one who had been active in Mr. Wilson's election, 
and who was in somewhat close touch with the 
Administration, to go to Washington to see if I 
could not secure this permission. He authorized 
me to say that if he should be permitted to get up 
an army corps, that the President could appoint 
the commander of the corps, the commanders of 
divisions, and that he would be the eighth brigadier, 
in command merely of a brigade. 

I went to Washington and saw Mr. Baker, Sec- 
retary of War, and told him what Mr. Roosevelt 
had said. He demurred at the idea, on the ground 
that this war should be carried on by the regular 
officers of the army, and stated that the organiza- 
tion of the armies should be carried through on the 
lines laid down by the General StaiF and the regu- 
lar officers, and did not think it well that a volun- 
teer force should be got together. I said to him 
that it seemed to me that the question was a broader 
one and should not be considered from the stand- 
point of the General Staff and regular officers of 
the army alone. That the country was not yet 
awakened to the seriousness of the war, that its 
enthusiasm had not yet been aroused, and that it 
would not only be a great help to the country to 
secure the eager support of Roosevelt and his 
ardent admirers and friends, but that I felt, from 
the Democratic Party point of view, it would be 
a very helpful thing to enlist this enthusiastic sup- 
port and aid for the Democratic Administration 
and for the furtherance of its policies in the prose- 
cution of the war. Besides, as commander of a 
brigade, Mr. Roosevelt's position would only be 
one in which he would be directed to carry out 
orders and in no way be one in which he would 



342 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

have any influence upon the plans or strategy of 
a campaign. 

I saw, however, from Mr. Baker's non-com- 
mittal replies, that the cards had been stacked 
against Roosevelt, and that there was little hope 
of success. However, in order to do all I could 
and in order to get my views promptly before the 
President, I got Admiral Grayson, the President's 
personal physician, who saw him every day and 
who is an old friend of mine, to lunch with me; 
and I set forth the arguments that I had stated to 
]Mr. Baker, and told him what I considered to be 
Mr. Baker's attitude, and that I wanted him to 
make a personal appeal to the President regard- 
ing the question; and he promised immediately to 
do so, and told me further that he agreed with 
me. 

I returned to New York, and promptly saw 
Roosevelt and told him of my interviews, but that 
I felt there* was no hope of success. That Mr. 
Baker had merely "rubber stamped" the views of 
the Administration and the General StaiF; and so 
it proved to be. 

After my appointment with the Naval Avia- 
tion in August, and shortly before sailing for 
France, I went to say good-by to Roosevelt; and, 
almost with tears in his eyes, he congratulated me 
upon the wearing of the uniform which had been 
his heart's desire. I never saw him again, as he 
died before I returned to this country. I still be- 
lieve that had he been allowed to organize the 
corps which he wished to do, that it would have re- 
sulted in our getting into action in France much 
more promptly than we did, in effective force ; for 
most of the men enrolled by him had already had 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH S43 

more or less military training and could have been 
promptly shipped overseas. 

This part of my classmate's letter, bearing upon 
Wilson's autocratic and probably jealous action, 
needs no comment. The letter goes on interest- 
ingly, thus: 

In the Spring of 1917, General Stepanek, then 
Major Stepanek, who was one of a committee of 
three, consisting of President Mazarik, Mr. Benes 
and himself, whose headquarters were in Paris, 
and who represented all the elements in Czecho- 
slovakia opposed to the Central powers, came out 
to this country for the purpose of organizing a 
volunteer force of Czecho- Slovaks to go over to 
France to fight. He brought letters to me and I 
took him down to Washington, first to the State 
Department, where we saw various gentlemen and 
where little but a vague knowledge seemed to exist 
as to the attitude of the Czecho-Slovaks towards 
the war, and the reasons why so many of them had 
deserted and gone over to the enemy, and were in 
opposition to the Central powers, and they seemed 
in Washington to be rather suspicious of these 
people as citizens of an enemy power. 

We were told that the Government did not wish 
to have bodies of Italian- American, Franco-Amer- 
ican or American Czecho-Slovak troops, but that 
all citizens, no matter of what descent, should be 
organized into a national American army. This 
difficulty was finally overcome by granting permits 
to Czecho-Slovaks, whether citizens or not, to go 
to France as civilians, where they were afterwards 
organized as troops. However, prior to accom- 



f^. 



3U ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

plishing this, I got Roosevelt to meet General 
Stepanek and myself at the Harvard Club, and in- 
stead of having to set forth detailed explanations 
as we had had to do in Washington, the historic 
and other reasons for the disaffection of Czecho- 
slovakia, we immediately saw that Mr. Roosevelt 
knew the history of the country, the history of its 
coming under the Austrian crown, the difficulties 
the people had always had in their relations with 
the Austrian Empire, and the reasons why the 
great majority of the people took the position they 
did in opposition to Austria in the war. No ex- 
planations were necessary with him, such as we had 
to make in Washington. 

Very truly yours, 

Frederick H. Allen. 

During this period of Wilson's "watchful wait- 
ing" our country was sinking steadily in the esteem 
and good-will of the entire world. Our nation was 
in a ferment of unrest and shame. The best ele- 
ments of our people were increasingly desirous of 
throwing our strength — sadly and criminally un- 
prepared though we were — on the side of the Allies 
as soon as possible. At this time, while visiting 
friends in Stockbridge, I made an afternoon call 
upon Joseph H. Choate. That briUiant diplomat, 
rich in honors, proved as always a most cordial 
and entertaining host. Conversing about current 
affairs, I recall that he said, "I receive a good many 
visits here from many kinds of people, many of 
them men from other countries. And, from all that 



I VALIANT FOR TRUTH 345 

I can gather, we are the most hated people on the 
face of the earth." This he said with that blending 
of humor and truth for which he was famous. A 
few moments later, as he asked me questions, it 
transpired that I spoke of being a college class- 
mate of Roosevelt's; and I added, "I admire and 
love that man." 

Instantly a mischievous smile spread over his 
expressive countenance; and, laying his friendly 
hand on my shoulder to counteract the sharpness 
of his words, he called out to his wife, in an adjoin- 
ing room, "Do come in here, Mabel! Here's a man 

I who really admires Roosevelt." But this was only 
a bit of play; and he said, immediately afterward, 

j some wise, kind words about our then unpopular 

I Progi'essive leader. 

The tide of popular favor, however, was then 

I at its lowest ebb. The country — influenced not a 
little by Wilson's hesitancy and procrastination — 
was giving more and more sympathetic heed to 
Roosevelt's exhortatiens. And Mr. Choate, like 
many other excellent citizens, altered his attitude 
appreciably toward that man who was really, in 
those days of impatience and shame, our country's 
leader, its uncrowned king. "Autres temps, autres 
moeurs", says the adage. "Opinions alter with the 
years", we may translate it. And one of the most 
striking changes in opinion and attitude that I 



346 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

know was this: During the warring days of the 
Progressive campaign, my illustrious classmate — 
talking with that rare and charming, but danger- 
ous, freedom of his — said to me, "I have many 
enemies; but the bitterest enemy I have is Win- 
throp Murray Crane." I could not forget that 
statement. Fancy my feeling, therefore, as I sat 
in a Roosevelt Memorial Association meeting in 
Symphony Hall, Boston, in the autumn of 1920, 
and heard, after the speaking, announcements of 
checks given and moneys pledged to the Memorial 
Fund; and the first check which was read was "One 
thousand dollars from Winthrop Murray Crane." 
Times had changed assuredly. Just how much and 
in what ways they had changed, I will not affirm. 
I make my statement of facts and leave it. 

Roosevelt, the many-sided man of wide interests 
and broad sympathies, always kept in friendly 
touch with the magazine world. From 1908 to 
1914 he was connected with the Outlook magazine. 
He was free to express his own opinions in its 
columns on any topic, over his name. This he did, 
yet he was open to suggestions and frequently al- 
tered his statements and modified his opinions, as 
some friend gave him new light on a subject. 

In 1914, he became associated with the Metro- 
politan magazine. As previously mentioned in 
these pages, I had the great pleasure of sitting be- 




FHAZIER's KKONZK HAS-KKLIEK (»K KodSKVEI/r. 



I 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 347 

side him at his desk one forenoon — the competent 
and devoted Miss Josephine Strieker, his secretary, 
being a third — and listened to scores of letters 
which had come to him, and listened also to the 
tactful, sympathetic replies which he dictated. The 
mot is told of him, in this connection, that he found 
certain critical people hard to please. "If I go 
down from my office or come up to it, in the front 
elevator, they say that I am ostentatious. And if 
I go or come in the rear elevator, they say that I 
am secretive." 

At this period, and later, he wrote many edi- 
torials for the Kansas City Star. Through these 
various channels and by numberless speeches — he 
was incessantly in demand — he carried on his 
patriotic leadership of the best thought of the 
nation. Together with all this public activity ran 
purely and happily the parallel current of his 
private home life. His work for the nation did 
not prevent him from meeting, with great wisdom 
and matchless fidelity, the demands upon him of 
his nearest of kin. The same lofty key of family 
hfe at Sagamore Hill was kept throughout its 
master's life. Mr. Bishop gives, in a letter, a story 
which is striking but in no way exceptional, as to 
the high quality of the home life of the Roosevelt 
family. 

During Roosevelt's tour in Europe on his return 



348 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

from Africa, the ex-President and Mrs. Roosevelt 
were staying with the Crown Prince and Princess 
of Sweden. At dinner one day, the Crown 
Princess turned to Roosevelt and asked, "Is it 
true that Mrs. Roosevelt would not receive the 
Russian Grand Duke Boris when he was in 
America?" Her guest met her frank question with 
a reply equally frank. 

"We were at Sagamore Hill, not at the White 
House, when the incident occurred which you have 
in mind. The Grand Duke had led a scandalous 
life in America. This was known to everybody. 
The Russian ambassador asked permission to bring 
the Grand Duke to our home. I could not courte- 
ously refuse this request. Mrs. Roosevelt shared 
my disapproval of the Grand Duke's notorious 
conduct and felt that his presence in our house 
would be an insult. Accordingly, when the two 
dignitaries arrived, she had gone out. The ambas- 
sador expressed regret at not finding her at home. 
And I did not explain further than to say, 'Mrs. 
Roosevelt has gone out to lunch, Mr. Ambassador; 
she is not in the house.' " 

With that fine courtesy which characterized 
them, Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt never mentioned 
the affair. "But," adds my fun-loving classmate, 
in Mr. Bishop's narrative, "apparently the Grand 
Duke and the Ambassador were not able to conceal 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 349 

their feelings and expressed their chagrin to a 
sufficient number of people to insure the matter 
getting into the papers, which it accordingly did." 

It is a delightful little tidbit of social news, espe- 
cially agreeable to democratic ears. The man 
Roosevelt — backed by his wife, who shared his life 
nobly, beautifully — was a real man, with a love of 
integrity and purity not only in his public career, 
in brilliant letters and speeches, but also in his 
private life, down through the simple, personal 
details of his daily living. Thirty years ago I 
heard President Arthur Hadley of Yale say in a 
public address upon social problems, "Society 
alone has the power to correct the evils which so- 
ciety creates." True words which have remained 
in my memory. And while many good people, 
themselves high-minded, hesitate or fail to make 
a stand against social moral laxities which they 
personally — and feebly — disapprove, not so acted 
Theodore Roosevelt. The moral idealism of the 
man was fundamental; it was expressed not only 
in words, as he stood on the platform with applause 
punctuating his appeals for truth and justice, but 
in deeds, even amid the smallest punctilios of a 
clean, cultivated, social code. 

In the earlier and even in the mid-life periods of 
my great friend's career, his record stands, in my 
memory, as in the black-and-white sketches of 



350 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

deeds and facts. But the last ten years of his Hfe 
stand recorded, for me, in colors — the colors of 
emotion; I knew his preeminence of character; I 
saw him developing it, through strenuous years — 
intellectually even if not morally, for he was born 
with an unchanging passion for truth and right — 
until he became the greatest living man of his time. 
And his greatness was not because of the extreme 
development of any single quahty, but because he 
had all the high qualities of other men, only most 
of those quahties, in him, were larger and stronger 
than in them. Thus he was not a prodigy, not an 
abnormal type; he was a superman; he was first a 
man and then something more than other excellent 
able men, around the full periphery of his large, 
rich nature. 

In masses of vivid color come to me those last 
scenes of his life. I am not so much concerned 
with the things he did; but I am deeply sympa- 
thetic with his feelings as he did them. I rejoice, 
for example, as I look at that fiery "Barnes trial" 
in its entirety. It stands out, hke a battle scene, 
in vivid red, like blood. Roosevelt had expressed 
his opinion of Wilham Barnes's character and 
actions in plain Saxon terms. Barnes at once 
brought suit for libel against Roosevelt. Barnes's 
counsel, William M. Ivins, declared that among 
Roosevelt's letters could be found evidence of 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 351 

methods similar to Barnes's. He declared confi- 
dently to Elihu Root, on the eve of the trial, "I am 
going to Syracuse to-morrow, to nail Roosevelt's 
hide to the fence." To which boast astute Elihu 
Root replied, "I know Roosevelt, and you want 
to be very sure that it is Roosevelt's hide that you 
get on to the fence." 

Results justified Root's warning. The trial 
lasted more than a month. Ivins went over thou- 
sands of letters and speeches written by Roosevelt 
during his public career, and read selections from 
them in court. Roosvelt's marvelous memory 
showed itself when he interrupted the reading of 
one letter, several years old: "Isn't there an inter- 
lineation there, which says — so and so?" And it 
was there, and was read out. 

The whole country followed that exciting libel 
suit with deep interest, and with a confidence in the 
defendant's character which the results justified. 
Roosevelt's name was on the front page of the news- 
papers day after day. One of his most inveterate 
enemies said bitterly of Barnes, "He is the most 
blundering lunatic I ever saw. After the unsuc- 
cessful Progressive campaign we had Roosevelt 
dead and buried. And now Barnes has not only 
opened the door for him to come back, but has 
pushed him to the front of the stage and made him 
a greater popular idol than ever." 



352 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Two points connected with the triumphant vin- 
dication of Roosevelt in that trial are worth noting. 
First, when the time for cross-examination came, 
he requested his counsel to raise no objection to 
any question which might be asked him by Ivins. 
There you have the fearless Roosevelt, clear in 
conscience, and self-reliant as ever. He knew that 
his record was clean, and he welcomed all possible 
inquiries about it. And the second point, which 
appeals to every paternal and maternal heart, is 
that at the end of the day on which the last of his 
letters was read in the courtroom, he said to a 
friend, *Tt has meant more to me than anything 
else in this trial, that there is not a single thing in 
those old letters of mine which I am ashamed to 
have my children read." Just, clean, honest living 
it was, from his great public policies, known to all 
men, down to the smallest and most confidential 
items of his private correspondence, even under the 
microscope. 

It might properly be added that not only did the 
whole nation rejoice that Roosevelt came through 
the trial — verdict eleven to one for acquittal — 
without even the "smell of fire upon his garments" j 
but defeated and disappointed William Barnes 
was presently won over to a new attitude toward 
the man whom he had accused. Three years later, 
when the Repubhcan leaders of New York wished 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 353 

Roosevelt to run for the governorship, Barnes was 
with them; and he said to the reporters, "No mat- 
ter what my relations to Roosevelt have been in the 
past, we need now a man of his integrity, character 
and great foresight." 

It is always pleasant for friends of two men who 
have been open and intense rivals and enemies to 
see them generously bury the hatchet and "make 
up." Such a broad-minded, warm-hearted recon- 
ciliation took place between Taft and Roosevelt 
in the Blackstone Hotel, Chicago, on a Sunday in 
May, 1918. The two strong-natured meri; for- 
merly friends, had become utterly estranged dur- 
ing the political campaign of 1912. The epithets 
which they hurled at each other in the blinding heat 
of that struggle now seem amusing only. But the 
estrangement was deep. And the breach between 
them continued to exist through several years. 
Friends of both, knowing their warm hearts, longed 
to see them in harmony again. A meeting between 
the two was arranged at the Union League Club 
in New York. But it amounted to little. The 
time for generous concessions on both sides was 
not yet ripe. Roosevelt said picturesquely, grimly, 
of this meeting at the Club, "It was one of those 
friendly affairs, where each side, before entering 
the meeting place, made sure its hardware was 
in good order." 



354 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

Leary tells us that he was drawn to the dining 
room of the Blackstone Hotel by loud cheers. 
And, in a few moments, the message sped through 
the halls and corridors, "Taft and Roosevelt have 
got together." And that was the situation. They 
had happened, quite unexpectedly, to meet in that 
hotel on that day. And Time had healed the 
wounds of their former conflicts. They both 
longed to be friends again. And they became 
friends. They beamed on each other as they shook 
hands. 

Later, as Roosevelt went to the railway station, 
he expressed himself freely and joyously to Leary. 
"Jack, I never felt happier over anything in my 
life. It was splendid of Taft." 

Passing now to a somewhat diiFerent yet wholly 
unrelated side of Roosevelt's character, I say a few 
things about his religious faith. He went regularly 
to church, at Washington and at Oyster Bay, and 
wherever it was possible. But that fact does not 
throw much light on his — or any man's — real in- 
ner rehgious convictions. The habit and custom of 
church-going may involve many diverse considera- 
tions. And what a man really believes and aims at 
doing is hidden far within a man's heart. Roose- 
velt did unbosom himself, however, now and again, 
to sympathetic friends. 

To John Leary he once said, "I am fond of that 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 355 

verse of the prophet Micah: 'To do justly and to 
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God'; 
that, to me, is the essence of religion." And such 
it was, in his cool, calm moods. But in September, 
1918, evidently amid the pangs of his heart over 
the death of his son Quentin, he wrote "The Great 
Adventure." And I know few pieces of writing, 
in the English tongue, which are loftier than this. 
There is in it the same intense white-heat of passion 
which we find in James Russell Lowell's "Com- 
memoration Ode." It almost clothes itself in a 
garment of rhyme and rhythm. 

"Only those are fit to live who do not fear to 
die. . . . Both life and death are parts of the 
same Great Adventure. Never yet was worthy 
adventure worthily carried through by the man 
who put his personal safety first. Never yet was 
a country worth living in unless its sons and daugh- 
ters would die for it at need. ... In America all 
our people are summoned to service and sacrifice. 
All who give service or stand ready for sacrifice 
are the torch-bearers. We run, with the torches 
until we fall, content if we can then pass them to 
the hands of other runners. The torches whose 
flame is brightest are borne by the gallant men at 
the front, and by the gallant women whose hus- 
bands and lovers, whose sons and brothers, are at 
the front. These men are high of soul, as they 



356 ROOSEVELT; THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

face their fate on the shell-shattered earth, or in 
the skies above, or in the waters beneath. And no 
less high of soul are the women with torn hearts 
and shining eyes, — the girls whose boy-lovers have 
been struck down in their golden morning, and 
the mothers and wives to whom word has been 
brought that henceforth they must walk in the 
shadow. These are the torch-bearers. These are 
they who have dared the Great Adventure." 

This is poetry of a high order. Lacking rigid 
conventional poetic form, it yet thrills with that 
exaltation of soul which marks the lines of the real 
poets. Indeed, what else is it but the mystical 
Faith of the great Apostle to the Gentiles? 

The days and the months passed, the armies in 
Europe were close to the verge of exhaustion, but 
millions of fresh young warriors were hurrying to 
reach the battle line. And Germany sought an 
armistice, — which was granted. And the greatest 
war of all human history practically was over. 

Through it all Roosevelt had expended his 
energy bounteously, in all channels that were still 
open to him, the channel which he had most eagerly 
sought having been closed to him by the autocrat 
of the White House. He had not sulked in his 
tent, like Greek Achilles, bitter with disappoint- 
ment. But after his rebuff by Wilson he strove 
indefatigably for human rights and national honor. 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 357 

And, by his own pure, high spirit, as well as by 
contrast with selfish, sordid Wilson, he grew in 
popular favor rapidly, day by day. And had he 
lived, he would have been the successful presiden- 
tial candidate of the whole American nation in 1920. 
From the crest of the wave — as he expressed 
it, in 1910 — he had sunk into the hollow of the 
wave in 1912 and 1913. Then, with the greatest 
crisis of the world imminent, our greatest leader 
was summoned from the wave-hollow; and men 
who had voted for Wilson, men who had hurled 
harsh epithets at the Progressive Leader, now as 
one man looked toward him, admired him, praised 
him and almost worshiped him. The tide of popu- 
lar favor, at full in 1910, ebbed to its lowest point 
in 1913. Then, in 1916, it began to rise; and it 
rose steadily until the day of our illustrious hero's 
death. 

That death came on January 6, 1919, at his 
dearly loved home at Oyster Bay. He had spent 
some time at the Roosevelt Hospital a short time 
before, and, after seeming to be dangerously and 
hopelessly sick, had revived and had gone to Saga- 
more Hill. His faithful secretary, ^liss Josephine 
Strieker, attended him closely during those days 
in the hospital. She has described to me some of 
the conditions and incidents of that illness. Two 
qualities in him came out into bold relief, she told 



358 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

me. One was his desire to cause as little trouble 
to doctors and nurses as possible. Even when 
stricken with discomfort and pain, he was unselfish, 
and often expressed sympathy for those who cared 
for him. 

His other characteristic quality, which Miss 
Strieker set before me, was his insistence that the 
frequent bulletins which she prepared and gave 
out should express the exact facts of his case. Once 
or twice the doctors were inchned to modify or 
suppress some of the severest statements. For 
they knew that those bulletins were being tele- 
graphed and cabled over the whole civilized world. 
And they did not like to arouse too much public 
excitement. When Roosevelt learned this, he 
protested; he insisted that the truth, the whole 
truth and nothing but the truth should go into 
those bulletins. And his wishes were heeded. 

It is a custom among Harvard graduate-classes, 
when a member of the class dies, for the Class Sec- 
retary to send a notice of the death, with a few 
salient facts, to every other living member of the 
class. When Roosevelt's death came, on January 
6, 1919, at Oyster Bay, our Class Secretary, John 
Woodbury, sent out the usual notice; but, instead 
of giving the customary facts about our classmate's 
career, he sent to us this citation from Bunyan's 
"Pilgrim's Progress" : 



VALIANT FOR TRUTH 359 

"After this it was noised abroad that VaHant for 
Truth was taken with a summons, and had this for 
a token that the summons was true, that his pitcher 
was broken at the fountain. When he understood 
it, he called for his friends and told them of it. 
Then said he, 'I am going to my Father's. And 
though with great difficulty I have got hither, yet 
now I do not repent me of all my trouble. My 
sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my 
pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that 
can attain it. My marks and scars I carry with 
me, to be a witness for me, that I have fought His 
battles, who will be my rewarder.' " 



Thus came to Theodore Roosevelt the end of the 
earthly life. Our nation and the whole world felt 
a pang as the sad news went forth. From the lips 
and pens of longtime friends — and even former 
foes — poured tributes of praise for this remarkable 
human being. For all felt, as they made full sur- 
vey, standing amid the shadows, of Theodore 
Roosevelt's earnest, noble life, that he had proved 
himself a true man, a high, fine ideal of American 
citizenship. 

For myself, although deeply mourning his death, 
and wondering at his inexhaustible courage and his 
unbroken fortitude, I am assured that his life was 



360 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 

a happy one. To me he is — and shall ever be 
the Happy Warrior. 

"Who is the Happy Warrior? . . . He 

Whom neither shape of danger can dismay. 
Nor thought of tender happiness betray ; 

Finds comfort in himself and in his cause; 
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws 
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause: 
This is the Happy Warrior; this is He 
That every Man in arms should wish to be." 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Abbott, Lawrence, on two hu- 
morous situations, 244; with 
Roosevelt at Khartoum, 288, 
289, 290 

Abbott, Lyman, 277; on Mexi- 
can problem, 334 

Abuse, Roosevelt's feeling toward, 
263, 264 

Achilles, 356 

Action, keynote of his life, 103 

Adullam's Cave, resemblance to, 
243; Progressives like comjjany 
in, 325 

African trip, 279-283 

Aggressive quality in Roosevelt, 
15 

Ahlwardt, Rector, anti-Semitic 
demagogue, 124 

Akeley, Carl, 271 

Alaska, 203 

Algeciras, 203 

Alger, Secretary Russell A., 143 

Allen, Frederick H., letter to 
Oilman, 340-344 

Ambition, analysis of his, 194-196 

Americanism, speech at Union 
League Club, 98 

Ananias Club, 298 

"Ancient Irish Sagas, The", 
Roosevelt, 253 

Andrews Creek, camp at, 94 

"Applied morals", 329 

Art Club, member of, 42 

Arthur and the Round Table, 
King, 23 

Arthur, Vice-President Chester 
A., 202 

Assembly, elected to New York, 
70 

Astuteness, reputation for, 295, 
296 



Atliletic Association, member of, 

42 
Athletics, interest in and devo- 
tion to, 17, 32, et seq.; keen 
interest in, 269 
Atlanta Constitution, 244 
Aunt Anna. See Bttllock, Axxa 
"Autobiography", the, 3, 64, 76; 
quoted, 88, 131, 203, 215, 227, 
267, 268 

Bacox, Robert, 272, 273 

Balboa, 225 

Barnes, William, 350, 351, 352, 
353 

Bas-relief of Roosevelt, 162 

Bear, encounter with grizzly, 106 

"Ben Butler", accident when rid- 
ing, 92 ^^ 

"Black Horse Cavalry", 74 

Blackstone Hotel, Chicago, 353 

"Big Business", 203 

Bishop, Joseph B., 95, 125; 
quoted, 139, 252, 253, 259, 277, 
347, 348 

Bolton, Charles K., 332 

Bok, Edward \¥., 244, 245 

Boris, Grand Duke, 348 

Boston Evening Transcript, 244 

Boston Herald, 243 

Boulanger, General, 163 

Boutros Pasha, 293 

Boxing, keen interest in, 36 

"Boy's Life of Roosevelt, The", 
Hagerdorn, quoted, 170 

Brattle Street, Number Q2, Cam- 
bridge, 43, 58 

Brazil, trip to, 331 et seq. 

Brooks, Plifllips, 189, 299 

Brooks, Preston S., 74 

Browning, Robert, 135, 304 



363 



364 



INDEX 



Brownsville affair, 249; Roose- 
velt's settlement of, 251 

Bryan, William J., 137 

Bryce, James, observation of, 197 

Buffalo, N. Y., President Mc- 
Kinley assassinated at, 199; 
Vice-President summoned to, 
199; Roosevelt takes oath as 
President at, 200 

Bulbs and blossoms, 12 

Bullock, Anna (Aunt Anna), 
early instruction by, 20 

Bullock, Seth, 290, 301 

Bunyan, John, 358, 359 

Burroughs, John, on Roosevelt's 
knowledge of birds, 4 

Cairo, Egypt, daring speech at, 

283 
California, speech at University 

of, 226 
"Call of the Wild", 77 
Cambridge, England, reception 

at, 279 
Capital, 235 
Capital punishment, attitude 

toward, 176 
Carlyle, Thomas, Roosevelt's 

opinion of, 231 
Carow, Edith Kermit. See 

Roosevelt, Edith Kermit 

(Mrs. Theodore, nee Carow) 
Century Mac/azine, 253 
Chaffee, General Adna R., 151 
Character, unfolding of his, 74, 

75; the rebuilding of his, 131, 

132 
Charter Revision Committee, 129 
Cheney, Albert Loren, 302 
Chittenden, Lucius E., comment 

on Lincoln "Memories", 2 
Choate, Joseph H., 66; address 

in London, 299; on Roosevelt's 

home-coming, 303, 344, 345 
Church, regular in attendance at, 

354 
Civil Service Commission, ap- 
pointed to, 103, 104; service on, 

104-117 
Civil Service Reform, his work 

for, 103-117 
Clark, E. E., 214 



Class of '80, 24-40; its claim to 
fame, 24; Roosevelt on Coal 
Strike at reunion of, 215, 259; 
twenty-fifth anniversary of, 
271-274; dinner at "Hotel 
Somerset, 273; secretary's no- 
tice to, 358 

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 225 

Clemenceau, Georges, 329 

Cleveland, Ex-President Grover, 
213, 249 

Clubs, membership in, 42, 59 

Coal Strike, settlement of the, 
211-214, 255 

Cody, William, 300 

Collins, "Subby," encounter with, 
74 

Colombia, 225, 226, 227 

Colorado, hunting trip to, 197 

Columbus, Ohio, speech at, 313 

Combat, love for righteous, 11, 
14, 15 

"Commemoration Ode'', Lowell, 
355 

Constant, Baron d'Estournelles 
de, letter to, 234 

Corporations, reforming laws re- 
lating to, as Governor, 169 

Correspondence, volume of, 288, 
289 

Courage, before hostile audience, 
67, 190; in action in Cuba, 148, 
149 

Cowboy life, 76-95 

Cowboy, treatment of the dis- 
honest, 87 

Crane, Winthrop Murray, 346 

Croker, Richard, so-called boss 
of Tammany, 166 

Cuba, unbearable conditions in, 
140; return from, 163 

Cunningham, with Roosevelt in 
Africa, 281 

Curzon, Lord, 280 

Dakota Ter., 76-95 

Davis, Jefferson, correspondence 
with, 95, 96 

"Days", Emerson, 236 

Dayton, Judge, 277 

De Camp, Joseph, paints por- 
trait of Roosevelt, 259-265 



INDEX 



365 



Delavan House, New York, en- 
counter at entrance to, 74 

Denver, Col., bold speech at, 190 

Dewey, Admiral George, quoted, 
UO', QW 

Dining club, interest in his, 42- 
44 

Diplomacy, in Western life, 88 

D. K. Society, member of the, 
42, 54 

Dobbs Ferry, amusing prank at, 
9 

Dow, William, 78 

Dress, innate good taste in, 70, 
71 

Duel, a threatened, 86, 227 

Dunne, Finley P. ("Mr. Dooley"), 
letter to, 214 

Duvide, Rio da. See River of 
Doubt 

"Education of Henry Adams, 

The", quoted, 191, 192 
Edward VH, King, Roosevelt at 

obsequies of, 294 
Egypt, first trip to, 20, 283 
Effectives, on rank-list in college, 

60 
Eliot, Charles W., amusing in- 
cident with, 47 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 236 
Employers' Liability Law, 256 
Energy, dynamic factor of his 

life,' 21;' his boundless, 97 
England, visit to, 293-295 
English composition, not taken 

while in college, 60 
Europe, first trip to, 20; second 

visit, 20; in, with bride, 62, 

100, 101; return from Africa 

through, 284-295 
Exchange Club, Boston, speech 

at, 37 
Eyesight, defection, 4, 17 

"Fairbanks Incident", the, 285 

"Fair play", love of, 36 

Fence, picket, around the 

"Yard", 58 
Finance Association, member of 

the, 42 



Fiske, Rear Admiral Bradley A., 
his testimonial, 270 

Ford Franchise Bill, the fight for 
the, 170, 171 

Forest Reserves, 255 

"Four Eyes", a Western sobri- 
quet, 80, 88; disagreeable en- 
counter over, 81 

Francis of Assisi, Saint, 329 

Franklin, Benjamin, 287 

Frederick the Great, '.12S 

French language, familiarity 
with, 20 

"From Midshipman to Rear Ad- 
miral", Fiske, 270 

Galahad, Sir, 75 

"Gang, The", 230 

Gavin, Tony, letter to Gilman, 
152-157 

Germany, and Venezuelan arbi- 
tration, 218; visit to, 290-292, 
333, 356 

Gilman, Bradley, first impressions 
of Roosevelt, 1; long acquaint- 
ance with, 2; analysis of 
Roosevelt's character and per- 
sonality, 2 et seq.; admiration 
and devotion for Roosevelt, 
61 ; correspondence with Roose- 
velt, 65; Roosevelt's literary 
work, 102, 103; on opinion of 
some peace advocates, 137; an- 
alysis of Roosevelt's ambition, 
•194-196; the Presidential Pla- 
teau, 201-228; on Roosevelt's 
desire for reelection, 229-235; 
view of Roosevelt's renuncia- 
tion, 276-279; the break with 
Taft, 312-315; impressions of 
Progressive convention, 316; an 
ardent Progressive, 319; ex- 
planation of reports of intoxi- 
cation, 323-325; bitterness of 
defeat of Progressives, 326; 
Roosevelt's religious faith, 354 
Glee Club, an associate member 

of the, 42 
Gocthals, Colonel George W., 

228 
Gordon, Charles George, "Chi- 
nese", 329 



366 



INDEX 



Gorman, Senator Arthur P., 
Roosevelt's controversy with, 
112, 113 

Goudy, Dr. Henry, 280 

Governor of New York, wanted 
by Republicans for, 163, 164; 
nominated for, 165; elected, 
166; opposed by Independ- 
ents, 166, 1G7; energy and in- 
dustry as, 168; four most im- 
portant measures, 168, 169; 
opoosition of the bosses, 169, 
170; the fight for the bills, 170- 
173; attitude toward capital 
punishment, 175; enjoyment of 
the office of, 177; home life 
while, 177-181; end of term, 
183, 183; desire for second 
term, 183 

Grant, Judge Robert, Roosevelt 
at home of, 309-312 

Grant, Ulysses S., 202, 284 

"Great Adventure, The", Roose- 
velt, quoted, 355, 356 

Great Britain, and Venezuelan 
arbitration, 218 

Greek, lack of interest in, 60 

Greeley, Louis, 273 

Grey, Earl, 3, 294 

Gridiron Club, 247 

Griffin, Hank, altercation with, 
105 

Grosvenor, Congressman, his at- 
tack on Civil Service Reform, 
111; unavailing call at White 
House, 160 

Guild, Curtis, in campaign of 
1900, 188, 189, 197 

Guildhall Address, London, 293 

Haakon VII, King of Norway, 

290 
Hadley, Arthur Twining, 349 
Hagerdorn, Herman, "Boy's 

Life of Roosevelt", quoted, 170 
Hale, Edward E., quoted, 47, 

196 
Hale, Ellen D., paints portrait at 

White House, 221 
Hale, Matthew, amusing incident 

at White House, 205; letter 

from, 237 



Halford, E. W., 115 

Handwriting, Roosevelt's, 113, 
114 

Hanna, Senator Mark, 233, 234 

"Happv Warrior", the, 98, 134, 
181, 232, 328, 360 

Harding, Senator Warren G., 
338 

"Haroun-al-Roosevelt", 121 

Harrison, President Benjamin, 
appoints Roosevelt to Civil 
Service Commission, 103, 104 

Hart, Albert Bushnell, 295; on 
methods of Republican Con- 
vention of 1912, 317-319 

Harvard Advocate, 28; editor of, 
43 

Harvard Crimson, 28 

Harvard Graduates' Magazine, 
article on Roosevelt's studies, 
59, 60 

Harvard Union, public debate at, 
39, 40 

Harvard University, Roosevelt 
at, 1; habits of life while at, 
24 et seq.; the class of '80, 24- 
40; his rank in class, 31; ig- 
noring classroom routine, 38- 
89 

Hasty Pudding Club, 27, 42, 52- 
54 

Havana, sinking of battleship 
Maine at, 141 

Hay, John, quoted, 141; humor- 
ous letter to Ambassador 
White, 184, 235, 236; gives 
Lincoln ring to Roosevelt, 237 

Hay-Herran Treaty, 225 

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, 225 

Hendricks, Vice-President 
Thomas A., 107 

Hess, Jake, ward politician, 70 

Hewitt, Abram S., defeats Roose- 
velt for mayoralty, 100 

Hill, Professor A. S., 55, 56, 57 

History, not taken by Roosevelt 
in college, 60 

"History of New York City", 
Roosevelt, 132 

"History of the Naval War of 
1812", Roosevelt, 63, 102, 135 

Hitchcock, Frank H., 277 



INDEX 



367 



Holleben, Dr. von, German Am- 
bassador and Venezuelan arbi- 
tration, 218 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Doctor 

Hale's opinion of, 196 
Hong Kong, 140 
Hooper, William, 273 
Hotel Somerset, Boston, 273 
Howe, M. A. De Wolfe, 370 
Humor, keen sense of, 9-11, 13, 
14; his quality of, 158 

Idealist^ ax, 116, 117 

Iglehart, Doctor, 266 

Illinois Bar Association, dinner 

to Roosevelt, 336 
Inauguration, 236-238 
Independence, of opinions and 

actions of others, 26 
Independents, opposed to Roose- 
velt for Governor, 166, 167 
Indianola, Miss., post office at, 

206 
Influence, his, 94 
Initiative and Referendum, 128, 

314 
Institute, The, member of, 42 
Insurance- Bill, fight for the, 171- 

173 
"Interests", the, 279 
"Internationalism", 238 
Intoxication, malicious reports 

of 322-325 
Isle La Motte, Vt., 199 
Italy, visits, 284-287 
Ivins, William M., 350, 351, 352 

Jackson^, Andrew, 106 

James, Professor William, 
quoted, 67, 68, 134, 298 

Janus, Temple of, 141 

Japan, 238 

Jordan, David Starr, wide range 
of Roosevelt's interests, 266, 
267 

Judiciary, denunciation of a cor- 
rupt, 71, 72 

Kaxeko, Viscouvt Kextaro, 
Gilman's interview with, 239; 
at Oyster Bay, 240 



Kansas City Star, editorials for 

the, 347 
Khartoum, 283 
Kipling, Rudyard, 131; letter to 

Brander Matthews, 295 
Knowlton, Judge Marcus P., on 

Woodrow Wilson, 150, 339 

Labor, 235 

Labor and Capital, 209; and the 

Nobel Peace Prize, 243 
Labor legislation, 203 
"Labors of Hercules", 118 
Ladies' Home Journal, 244, 145 
Lambert, Doctor Alexander, 217, 

218, 253, 259 
Lansing, Secretary Robert, 339 
Latin, lack of interest in, 60 
Laughter, whole-hearted, 158 
Law, begins and abandons study 
of, 64; contemplates study of, 
198 
Lawrence, Bishop William, 274 
Lawton, General Henry W., 151 
Leary, Jr., John, characteristic 
conversation with, 8; explains 
reports of intoxication, 324, 
335, 336, 354 
Lee, Alice Hathaway. See 
Roosevelt, Alice Hathaway 
(Mrs. Theodore, nee Lee) 
Legal conventions, repugnance 

to, 64; caustic speech on, 66 
Leishman, John G. A., 284 
Lesseps, Count Ferdinand de, 224 
Leupp, Francis E., 204 
Lewis, William Draper, "Life of 
Theodore Roosevelt", quoted, 
57, 194 
Libel, suit against editor for, 

323 
Life, his view of the larger, 69 
"Life of Theodore Roosevelt", 

Lewis, quoted, 57, 194 
Lincoln, Abraham, comment on, 
2, 75, 146, 201, 202; ring, 237, 
252, 329 
Literary work, 63, 100-101-103 
Little Missouri River, 76, 77, 78, 

82, 90, 94 
Livingstone, David, "Missionary 
Travels in Africa", 6 



368 



INDEX 



Lobsters, amusing incident with, 
4 

Lodge, Senator Henry Cabot, 
135; letter to, quoted, 183, 
203, 211 

Lodging-rooms, closes police, 129 

Loeb, Jr., William, Secretary, 
200, 244 

Logic, high standing in, in col- 
lege, 60 

Long, Secretary John D., 135; 
quoted by Lodge, 135, 136 

Lowell, James Russell, 64, 355 

McKelway, St. Claih, at Union 
League Club, 98, 99 

McKinley, President William, 
115; appoints Roosevelt Assist- 
ant Secretary of Navy, 135, 
142, 143; assassination of, 199; 
death of, 200; policies contin- 
ued by Roosevelt, 202 

Maine, U. S. battleship, 141 

"Man on Horseback", the, 163 

Marriage, first, 62; second, 100 

Marryat, Frederick, 18 

Matterhorn, climbs the, 62 

Matthews, Brander, 295 

Mayflower, the presidential 
yacht, 242, 269 

Mayoralty of New York City, 
nominated for, 100; defeated 
for, 100 

Medora, Dakota Ter., 94 

Memorial Hall, 1; speech on 
Commencement Day, 1905, 66; 
address in, 274, 275 

Mendacity, charges of, 296, 297 

Merrifield, William J., incidents 
in ranch life with Roosevelt, 
90 et seq. 

Merry del Val, Raphael, pontifi- 
cal secretary, 286 

Metaphysics, high standing in, in 
college, 60 

Metropolitan Magazine, connec- 
tion with, 346 

Meyer, Postmaster General 
George von L., 270 

Mice, youthful interest in White, 
5, 6 

"Mighty Three", the, 325 



Milwaukee, Wis., attempt to 
assassinate Roosevelt in, 320 

"Missionary Travels in Africa", 
Livingstone, 6 

Mississippi, hunting trip to, 259 

"Mr. Dooley". See Dunne, Fin- 
ley P. 

Mitchell, John, 212 

Mombasa, 280 

Monroe Doctrine, and Venezu- 
elan arbitration, 218 

Montauk Point, arrival from 
Cuba at, 163 

Monterey, Cal., Roosevelt, Moody 
and Stow at, 161, 162 

Moody, Secretary William H., 
161," 162 

Moosehead Lake, boyish encoun- 
ter on trip to, 15 

Morale of the Rough Riders, 151 

Moral idealism, his, 328 

Morley, John, 22; amusing inci- 
dent at White House, 205, 206 

"Morton Hall Crowd", send 
Roosevelt to the Assembly, 70 

Muir, John, 82 

Murray, Joe, friendly guidance 
of, 69, 108 

"Museum of Natural History", 
Roosevelt^, 5, 19 

Napoleon Bonaparte, 22, 328 
"Nationalism", 238 
Natural History, honorable men- 
tion in, 31 ; ranks high in, 60 
Natural History Society, mem- 
ber of the, 42 
Nature study, interest in, 3, 4 
Navy, appointed Assistant Sec- 
retary of, 135; idea of fighting 
efficiency, 139; foresees war 
with Spain, 140; a touch of 
humor at the last, 142; more 
than double in size, 255; fleet 
circumnavigates the globe, 255 
Negro problem, 203, 204, 207 
"Newspaper Cabinet", 335 
New York City, residence in, 63; 
visits to, 95; return to, 97; 
nominated for mayor of, 97; 
police commissioner of, 119- 
132 



INDEX 



369 



New York Herald, 244 

Nile River, interest in bird life of, 

20 
Nobel Peace Prize, 243 
North Pole, like Peary at the, 

305 

Oakley Country Club, 272 

Ober's restaurant, 44 

O'Brien, Robert L., letter to Gil- 
man, 243-247 

Ohl, J. K., 244 

"Old Guard, The", 230, 315 

"Oliver Cromvi'eU", Roosevelt, 
168 

OIney, Richard, 247-249 

Opdycke, L. E., 274 

Oyster Bay, 101; home life at, 
177-180; Viscount Kaneko at, 
240; Roman Catholic clergy- 
men at, 286, 297, 324, 332, 357 

Paix, endurance of, 92, 93 

Panama, 203 

Panama Canal, esteemed his 
greatest achievement, 223; as 
conceived and executed by, 
225-228, 255 

Pandora's box, 21 

Parker House, Boston, 272 

Pastimes, youthful, 17 

"Patriot", Browning, 304 

People, the, faith in, 70, 129; ap- 
peals to, 128; reliance on, for 
reelection, 233; reached 

through the Press, 336 

Perdicaris-Raisuli affair, 219, 
220 

Peter the Hermit, 182 

Pets, fondness for, 266, 267, 268 

Plii Beta Kappa Society, mem- 
ber of the, 31, 42 

Philippines, 255 

Photograph, his class, 26, 27 

Physical development, 32 et seq. 

"Pigskin Library", the, 282 

"Pilgrim's Progress, The", Bun- 
yan, 358, 359 

Pius X, desire to meet Pope, 284, 
285 

Piatt, Senator Thomas C, 104, 
164, 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171, 
172, 173, 174, 183-187, 190 



Poker, political bluff like game 
of, 173 

Police Commissioner, appointed, 
119; work as, 119-132 

Political Economy, a leader in, 
in college, 60 

Porcellian Club, member of the, 
42 

Portrait, painted by Ellen Hale, 
221; Roosevelt presents a, to 
Grace Church, Washington, 
223; painted by De Camp, 
259 

Portsmouth, N. H., Treaty of, 
240; Peace Conference at, 
255 

Prayer, an amusing childish, 7 

"Preaching", sound, pure advice 
in his, 157 

Precedence, instances of the eti- 
quette of, 241-243 

Preparedness, his work for, 
137 

President, succeeds McKinley as, 
200; to continue McKinley's 
policies as, 202; liking for the 
work, 217; confidence in the 
new, 218; attendance at church, 
222; desire for reelection, 229- 
235; elected, 236; inauguration, 
236, 237; as peacemaker In 
Russo-Japanese War, 238-240; 
Nobel Peace Prize, 243; action 
in Brownsville affair, 249-252; 
capacity for work, 253, 254; 
what he accomplished while, 
254-256 

Presidential plateau, 201-238 

Press, relations with reporters of, 
175, 335; opposed by, in Pro- 
gressive campaign, 321; their 
feeling for, 336 

Proctor, John R., 106 

Progressive Party, convention of, 
70, 307; convention of, 316- 
319; campaign of 1912, 319- 
325; defeated, 315; character 
of the convention, 316; reason 
for the "bolt", 318, 319; Press 
against the, 331 ; the company 
in Adullam's Cave, 335; bitter- 
ness of defeat, 326 



370 



INDEX 



Quay, Sekator Matthew S., 
215; last meeting with, 216 

Quigg, Lemuel E., 164; interview 
on governorship, 165 

Quirinal, the, 287 

Ranch life, 76-95 

Ranlett, F. J., on Roosevelt's 
studies, 59, 60 

Raphael, Otto, 131 

Reading, love for, 32 

Recall of judicial decisions, 65, 
313 

Referendum, 314 

Reform, teamwork necessary in, 
76 

Reid, Mayne, 6 

Remington, Frederic, 79 

Republican Party, need of 
Roosevelt for state campaign, 
163; convention of 1900, 185- 
187; convention of 1908, 276; 
methods of convention of 1912, 
317-319 

Rhetoric, high standing in, in col- 
lege, 60 

Rhodes, James Ford, opinion of 
Roosevelt, 326, 327 

Right, love of a fight for the, 162 

Ridicule, his feeling toward, 263, 
264 

Rifle Club, member of the, 42 

Riis, Jacob, anecdote of Roose- 
velt's childhood, 6, 77, 121; 
quoted, 122, 123, 126, 132; in 
campaign for governorship, 
165; suggests Tenement House 
Commission Bill, 169; urges 
commutation of death sentence, 
176 

Rio Janeiro, 331 

River of Doubt, the, 331, 333 

Robinson, Corinne Roosevelt (sis- 
ter of Theodore), incident of 
speech at Union League Club, 
98,99, 100; letter to, 174 

Roman Forum, 130 

Rondon, Colonel, 331 

Roosevelt, Alice Hathaway (Mrs. 
Theodore Roosevelt, nee Lee), 
57; marriage, 62; death, 68; her 
husband's grief, 77 



Roosevelt, Edith Kermit (Mrs. 
Theodore Roosevelt, n^e Ca- 
row), marriage, 100; on in- 
auguration day, 237, 348 

Roosevelt, Elliot (brother of 
Theodore), 76 

Roosevelt, Kermit (son of Theo- 
dore), with father in Africa, 
281 

Roosevelt, Martha, Mrs. Theodore 
(mother of Theodore), com- 
ment on her venturesome son, 
6; her sense of humor, 7; her 
son's boyish prank, 10; death, 
68; her son's grief, 77 

Roosevelt, Theodore (father of 
Theodore), only man Roose- 
velt ever feared, 7; sympa- 
thetic interest in son's pas- 
times, 16, 17 

Roosevelt, Theodore, Oilman's 
first impressions of, 1, 2; 
"threads" of his character, 3-5; 
John Burroughs' opinion of, 
4; amusing incidents of child- 
hood, 4-10; defective eyesight, 
4; his "Museum of Natural 
History", 5; a youthful es- 
capade, 6; the remonstrant's 
prayer, 7; instinct for retalia- 
tion, 7-8; sense of humor, 8-11, 
13, 14; boyhood development, 
12-13, 15; his love for combat, 
15; physical development, 16- 
17; rowing a favorite pastime, 
17-18; "self-made", 18-19; tim- 
idity overcome by will, 19; 
familiarity with French, 20; 
two trips to Europe, 20; the 
dominant qualitv, 21-23; the 
Class of '80, 24-40; its title 
to fame, 24; his life in college, 
24-25; personal appearance, 25; 
self-reliance and independence, 
26; earnestness in debate, 27- 
28; photograph of, 28; rescue 
of horse, 29; torchlight parade, 
29; studies and standing in col- 
lege, 31-32; atliletics, 32; Doc- 
tor Sargent's report on, .33- 
34; interest in sparring, 36-37; 
innovations in the classroom, 



INDEX 



3T1 



Roosevelt, Theodore {Continued) 
38-39; club membership, 41-42; 
editor of Harvard Advocate, 
42; his dining club, 42-44; 
Charles G. Washburn's early 
estimate of, 46; his shyness, 46- 
47; Sunday School teacher, 49- 
51 ; qualities mutually antag- 
onistic, 51-53; youthful indig- 
nation, 56; the picket fence, 
58; studies and standing, 59- 
61; first marriage, 62; visits 
Europe, 62; climbs Matterhorn, 
62; the crucial period, 63; 
choice of profession, 63-64; 
antipathy to legal methods, 64- 
67; "twiceborn", 67-69; initia- 
tion to politics, 69-70; elected 
to the Assembly, 70; word for 
reform, 71-74; in cowboy land, 
76-95; disappointment in re- 
form work, 76; death of wife 
and mother, 77; asthmatic trou- 
ble, 77; his ranch home, 78; 
duties and pleasures of ranch 
life, 80; experiences with cow- 
boys, 80-81; "The Wilderness 
Hunter" quoted, 82; unique 
hotel experience, 84; cartoonist 
humor, 85; the "call-down" 
given, 85; the proposed duel, 
"with rifles", 86; the "square 
deal" exemplified, 86; a West- 
ern storv at the Sorbonne, 87- 
88; his ' tactfulness, 88-89; a 
sympathetic nature, 90; on the 
round-up, 91 ; endurance of 
pain, 92-93; influence with his 
men, 94; trips to New York, 95; 
correspondence with Jefferson 
Davis, 95-96; question of the 
mayoralty, 97; debate with St. 
Clair McKelway, 98-99; nom- 
inated for Maj^or of New York, 
100; defeated by Hewitt, 100; 
visits England, 100; second 
marriage, in London, 100; a 
happy marriage, 101 ; takes iip 
residence at Sagamore Hill, 
101 ; resumes literary work, 101 ; 
"History of the Naval War of 
1812", 102; "The Winning of 



the West" result of his West- 
ern experiences, 102; charac- 
ter of his literary work, 102- 
103; appointed Civil Service 
Commissioner, 103; in Wash- 
ington, 104; hunting trip in 
the Rockies, 104-106; handling 
a lawless guide, 105-106; close 
call with a grizzly, 106; estab- 
lishing the merit system, 106- 
107; overcoming opposition, 
107-109; practical tests for 
fitness, 110; discomfiting a 
Congressman, 111; Senator 
Gorman's complaint, 112-113; 
his handwriting, 113; applying 
the merit-system rules, 114; a 
falling out and reconciliation, 
115-116; an idealist in reform, 
116-117; the arduous tasks of 
his life, 118; appointed Police 
Commissioner, 119; the magni- 
tude of the work, 120; trans- 
forming and reforming the 
force, 120-121; helpfulness of 
Jacob Riis, 121; Riis' opinion 
of, 122; faith in the people, 
123; handling an anti-Semitic 
demagogue, 124; disloyalty of 
a fellow Commissioner, 124- 
125; sharp practice by a dis- 
missed patrolman, 126; his 
trustful nature, 127; his per- 
spicacity, 127-128; reliance on 
the people, 128-129; the case 
of the police lodging rooms. 
129; his tenderness, 130; wide 
range of his interests, 131 ; the 
prophecy in his "History of 
New York City", 132; the 
"Happy Warrior", 133-162; his 
most joyous experience, 134; 
appointed Assistant Secretary 
of the Na%'y, 135; Secretary 
Long's opinion of, 135; return 
to Washington, 130; the fight 
for preparedness, 136; increas- 
ing the elficiency of the Navy, 
139; the orders "to Dewey, 140; 
sinking of the Maine, 141; en- 
listment, 141; a joke warship, 
142; intimacy with Leonard 



372 



INDEX 



Roosevelt, Theodore (Contin/u-ed) 
Wood, 143; war declared, 
143; declines first offer of 
commission, 144; choice of the 
title "The Rough Riders", 144; 
formation and equipment of 
the regiment, 145-146; a re- 
calcitrant soldier, 147; ex- 
ceeding authority, 148; his 
courage in action, 148-149; in- 
fluence with men of the regi- 
ment, 150; morale of the 
regiment, 151 ; Tony Gavin's 
letter on, 153-157; sound ad- 
vice to his men, 157; laughter, 
158; humor perceptions, 158; 
humorous breaches of military 
etiquette, 159-160; sjTnpathy 
between his men and, 160; a 
joke on the Rough Riders, 161; 
love of combat for the right, 
162; bas-relief of, 162; arrival 
at Montauk Point, 163; the 
"Man on Horseback", 163; 
drafted for governorship, 164; 
Piatt's aversion to and need for, 
164; interview with Quigg, 
Piatt's agent, 164; nominated 
for Governor, 165; his dra- 
matic campaign, 166; election, 
166; opposed by extreme Inde- 
pendents, 166; his energy and 
industry in office, 168; writes 
"The Rough Riders" and 
"Oliver Cromwell", 168; four 
important measures, 169; oppo- 
sition of Piatt and the bosses, 
169; cooperation with Piatt, 
170; a bold stand, 171; strug- 
gle over the Insurance Bill, 
171; Piatt's bluff "called", 172- 
173; what he could do, 173; 
his opinion of his position, 174; 
relations with the reporters, 
175; attitude toward capital 
punishment, 175-176; close of 
his term, 176; his beautiful 
home life, 177 et seq.; molding 
his children's characters, 180; 
letters to his children, 180; en- 
joyment of the governorship, 
181; the turning point, 182; de- 



sires a second term, 183; op- 
posed by Piatt, 183; slated for 
the Vice-presidency, 184; futile 
remonstrance of, 184-186; John 
Hay's letter, 184; Piatt's threat 
and the rejoinder, 186; the 
Convention of 1900, 186; nomi- 
nates McKinley, 186; Conven- 
tion out of hand, 186; nomi- 
nated for "Vice-president, 187; 
disappointment and depression, 
187; a man of destiny, 187; in 
the campaign, 188; power in 
his manner as a public speak- 
er, 188; eagerness to hear him, 
189; courage in debate, 190; 
joy in the campaign work, 192; 
growth in public favor, 193; 
his ambition, 193-196; prophecy 
of Speck von Sternberg, 194; 
generous sentiment to Curtis 
Guild, 197; election, 197; hunt- 
ing trip to Colorado, 197; con- 
siders study of law, 198; con- 
sults Mr. Justice White, 198; 
assassination of McKinley, 
199; death of McKinley, 200; 
takes oath of office as Presi- 
dent, 200; the Presidential 
plateau, first half, 201-228; 
continues McKinley policies, 
202; consultation with leaders, 
203; the Booker T. Washington 
incident, 203-205; amusing ex- 
perience of John Morley at 
White House, 205; the Indian- 
ola post office, 206; his view 
of the Negro Problem, 207; 
conferences with Doctor Wash- 
ington, 208; Labor and Capi- 
tal, 209; handling the coal 
strike, 210-214; enjoyment of 
"Mr. Dooley", 214; relations 
with Senator Quay, 215; his 
democratic spirit, 216; enjoy- 
ment of his work, 217; his con- 
fidence, 217; growth in public 
esteem, 218; sharp talk to Ger- 
man Ambassador, 218; the 
Perdicaris-RaisuU affair, 219; 
Miss Hale's portrait of, 221; 
attendance at church, 222; 



INDEX 



373 



Roosevelt, Theodore (Continued) 
greatest contribution to the 
world, 223; the Panama Canal, 
224 et seq.; difficulties with Co- 
lombia, 225 et seq.; appoint- 
ment of Goethals, 228; desire 
for election to full term, 230; 
opinion of Carlyle, 231 ; de- 
sire to reach the plain people, 
233; use of the Press, 233; 
relations with Senator Hanna, 
233; letter to d'Estournelles de 
Constant, 234; appreciation of 
his good fortune, 236; election 
of 1904, 236; the Lincoln ring, 
237; inauguration, 237; Russo- 
Japanese War, 238; first steps 
for peace, 239; Viscount Kan- 
eko on, 239; Baron Rosen's 
opinion, 240; the Treaty of 
Portsmouth, 241 ; cutting Gor- 
dian knots of etiquette, 242; 
precedence in the White 
House, 242; Nobel Peace Prize 
and its disposition, 243; a trib- 
ute from the Press, 243; 
friendship with Richard 01- 
ney, 247; the Brownsville af- 
fair, 249 et seq.; ceaseless ac- 
tivity, 253; some results of 
administration, 254; personal- 
ity, 256; hospitality in the 
White House, 257; hunting 
trip in Mississippi, 259; an 
artist's trials while portrait 
painting, 260 et seq.; happy 
family life, 265; his varied in- 
terests, 266; letters to his chil- 
dren, 268; athletic exercise, 
269; Admiral Fiske's testimo- 
nial, 270; twenty-fifth anni- 
versary of '80, 271 et seq.; the 
Class picture, 272; the talk at 
the Class dinner, 274; at Me- 
morial Hall, 274; renunciation, 
276; nomination of Taft, 277; 
the African trip, 279 et seq.; 
"African Game Trails", 281; 
the pig-skin library, 282; re- 
turn to civilization, 283; bold 
speech at Cairo, 283; in Eu- 
rope, 284; the Vatican inci- 



dent, 284; meets Victor Em- 
manuel, 287; popularity in 
Italy, 287; bored by kings, 287; 
volume of correspondence, 288; 
talks with King Haakon of 
Norway, 290; in Germany, 290; 
estimate of the Kaiser, 291 ; 
courtesies shown by Kaiser, 
292; in England, 293; the 
Guildhall Address, 293; at 
obsequies of King Edward 
Vn, 294; Kipling's opinion, 
295; his astuteness, 295; the 
charges of mendacity, 296; 
truthfulness, 297; the Ananias 
Club, 298; Joseph H. Choate's 
tribute, 299; close of the Euro- 
pean tour, 300; longings for 
home, 301; return, 302; cor- 
diality of his reception, 302 
his views on his popularity, 303 
likens himself to Peary, 305 
his high idealism, 306; mis- 
judgment of Taft, 307; rela- 
tions with Taft, 308; summons 
from the "Seven Governors", 
309; in Boston, 309; views ex- 
pressed to Judge Grant, 311 
the break with Taft, 312 
speech at Columbus, Ohio, 313 
the Recall of Judicial Deci- 
sions, 313; the Initiative and 
Referendum, 314; Taft renom- 
inated, 315; election of Wilson, 
315; formation of the Pro- 
gressive Party, 315; the Pro- 
gressive Convention, 316; at- 
tacks on Roosevelt, 317; meth- 
ods of the Republican Conven- 
tion of 1912, 317; nominated 
by the Progressives, 319; at- 
tempt to assassinate, 320; op- 
position of the Press, 321; 
scurrilous reports of his use of 
liquor, 322; his suit for libel, 
323; his temperate habits, 324; 
the hour of defeat, 325; James 
Ford Rhodes on, 326; moral 
idealism, 328; development 
throughout life, 329; the trip 
to the Brazilian wilds, 331; 
"Through the Brazilian Wil- 



374 



INDEX 



Roosevelt, Theodore (Contiwued) 
derness", 331 ; disastrous re- 
sults, 333; the challenge of the 
World War, 333; voicing the 
popular demand for action, 
334; aided by his newspaper 
friends, 335; their affection for 
him, 336; tireless in his efforts, 
337; declaration of war, 337; 
movement to raise regiment, 
338; offers services, 338; 
thwarted by Wilson, 338; his 
great regret, 339; the country 
in low esteem, 344; literary 
connections, 346; the Grand 
Duke Boris incident, 348; his 
greatness, 349; the Barnes libel 
case, 350; his clean private 
life, 351; reconciliation with 
Taft, 353; religious faith, 354; 
"The Great Adventure", 355; 
growth in public esteem, 357; 
death of, 357; last illness, 357; 
Valiant for Truth, 359; "The 
Happy Warrior", 360 

Roosevelt, Quentin (son of 
Theodore), letters to, 268, 
355 

Roosevelt Hospital, 357 

"Roosevelt Luck", 173 

Roosevelt Memorial Association, 
346 

"Roosevelt Museum of Natural 
History", 5, 19 

Root, El'ihu, 351 

Rosen, Baron Roman Romano- 
vitch de, on the Treaty of 
Portsmouth, 240 

Rough Riders, the, 144-162; 
choice of the name, 144; for- 
mation of the regiment, 144; 
pardoning a prisoner, 146-148; 
at San Juan Hill, 149; influ- 
ence over men of, 150; their 
faith in him, 150; morale of, 
151 ; devotion and loyalty to 
Roosevelt, 151-162; letter of 
Tony Gavin, 152-157; advice in 
farewell speech to, 157; ludi- 
crous breaches of etiquette, 
159, 160; sj'mpathy between 
Roosevelt and, 160; at inaugu- 



ration, 237; at White House, 
258 

"Rough Riders, The", Roosevelt, 
158, 168 

"Round Robin", the famous, 149 

Rowing, preference for, 17, 18 

Ruskin, John, 82 

Russia, 238; ambassador, of, 
348; Grand Duke Boris of, 348 

Russo-Japanese War, 238-243; 
Roosevelt takes steps to stop, 
239-243; the Treaty of Ports- 
mouth, 240, 241 

St. Georges, Lokdon, Roose- 
velt's marriage in, 100 

Sagamore Hill, 101, 330, 336, 
347, 348, 357 

San Juan Hill, charge up, 134, 
149 

Santo Domingo Treaty, 255 

Sargent, Doctor Dudley A., on 
Roosevelt's physical condition, 
33-35 

Schick, Rev. John M., 222, 223 

Schrank, attempts to assassinate 
Roosevelt, 320, 321 

Scott, Sir Walter, 141 

"Self-made" man, a, 18, 75 

Self-reliance, his, 29 

Selons, with Roosevelt in Africa, 
281 

"Seven Governors", the call from 
the, 309 

Sewall, William, 78; quoted, 83, 
85, 86, 89, 94, 95, 97; letter to, 
235 

Shafter, General William R., 149 

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 282 

Sherry's, New York, dinner to 
■Roosevelt at, 174, 303 

Shidy Case, the, 109 

Shyness, in J^outh, 46 

Sincerity, his, 27, 297 

"Skipping rope" as physical ex- 
ercise, 35 

"Solid South", failed to gauge 
feeling in, 203 

Sorbonne, Western incident re- 
lated to, 87, 265 

South America, visits, 331 et seq. 

Spalding, Rev. Mr., 49 



INDEX 



375 



Spanish War, 141-160 

Speech, early lack of fluency in, 
27, 28 

Spirit, the valor of his, 11, 14 

Stack, Tom, incident in saloon 
of, 94 

Sternberg, Baron Speck von, pre- 
diction of, 194, 195 

Stevenson, Robert Louis, quoted, 
71 

Stone, Frederick Mather, inci- 
dent related by, 54, 55 

Stow, Yanderlyn, meeting with 
Roosevelt and Moody, 161, 
162 

Straus, Oscar, on Roosevelt's 
leading quality, 130, 329 

Street, Julian, 337 

Strieker, Josephine, Roosevelt's 
secrctarv, on his trustful na- 
ture, 127, 289, 347, 357, 358 

Strong, Mayor William D., ap- 
points Roosevelt Police Com- 
missioner, 119 

Sumner, Senator Charles, 74 

Sunday School, experience as a 
teacher in, 49-51 

Superintendent of Insurance, re- 
forming office of, 169; fight for 
the Bill, 171-173 

Superintendent of Public Works, 
reforming office of, 169 

Sweden, Crown Prince of, 348 

Symphony Hall, Boston, 272 

Tact, lack of in youth, 89; ac- 
quired in mature life, 89 

Taft, William Howard, 14, 276; 
nominated for Presidency, 277, 
278, 279, 294, 306; Roosevelt's 
mis judgment of, 307; relations 
with Roosevelt, 308; the final 
break, 312-315; renominated, 
315; defeat of, 315; reconcilia- 
tion with Roosevelt, 353, 354 

Tammany, 100 

Tangier, 219, 220 

Tarlton, with Roosevelt in Afri- 
ca, 281 

Taylor, "Buck," ardent speech of, 
165, 166 

Taxidermy, his interest in, 13 



Teamwork, necessary in work for 

reform, 76 
Tenement House Commission 

Bill, 169 
"Tennis Cabinet", the, 335 
Tennyson, Alfred, 330, 331 
Teodoro, Rio. See River op 

Doubt 
Thayer, Professor James B., 64 
Thayer, ^Villiam Roscoe, 27, 28; 

comment on Roosevelt, 45, 

quoted, 72, 288 
"Theodore Roosevelt and his 

Time", Bishop, quoted, 95 
"Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to 

His Children", edited by 

Bishop, 180, 181 
"Through the Brazilian Wilder- 
ness", Roosevelt, 331 
Timid, naturallv, 18; correction 

of this defect," 18, 19 
Torch-light parade, incident of, 

30 
Trevelyan, Sir George Otto, 

Roosevelt's letters to, 231, 278 
Trinidad, AV. L, unfortunate re- 
mark at dinner at, 227 
Truth, his instinct for, 297 
Turtle, youthful interest in, 5 

"Ulysses", Tennyson, 330, 331 
Union League Club, New York, 
speech at, 98, 353 

"Valiaxt for Truth", 359 

Van Wyck, Judge, defeated for 
governorship by Roosevelt, 166 

"Varieties of Religious Experi- 
ence", James, quoted, 67, 68 

"Vatican Incident", the, 284-286 

Venezuelan arbitration, interview 
with German Ambassador, 218, 
219 

Vice in New York, his fight 
against, 69, 70 

Vice-presidency, slated for, by 
Piatt, 184; reluctance to ac- 
cept, 184-186; the Convention 
of 1900, 185-187; nominated 
for, 187; campaign for, 188- 
197; Curtis Guild in campaign, 
188, 189, 197; bold speech at 



376 



INDEX 



Vice-presidency (Continued) 
Denver, 190; incidents of tlie 
campaign, 192-197; elected to 
the, 197; cliurch attendance 
during, 222 
Victoria, Queen, 204, 205 
Victor Emmanuel III, Roose- 
velt's regard for, 287 

War, declaration of (against 
Spain), 143; (against Ger- 
many), 337 

"War Party", the, 143 

Washburn, Charles G., comment 
on Roosevelt, 46; quoted, 134, 
162; description of Roosevelt, 
168, 302 

Washington, Booker T., 203; 
dines at White House, 204; re- 
sulting storm, 204, 205, 206, 
207; Gilman's talk with, 208, 
209 

Washington, D. C, inauguration 
of Roosevelt, 23G, 237 

"Watchful Waiting", 333 

West, hunting trip in the, 104- 
106 

Weyler, General, 148 

Wheeler, General Joseph, 151 

White, Mr. Justice Edward 
Douglas, Roosevelt seeks ad- 
vice of, 198 

White, Henry, humorousNletter of 
John Hay to, 184, 185 

White House, Booker T. Wash- 
ington dines at, 204; Episcopal 
clergyman at, 205; reply to 
labor leader at, 210; portraits 
painted at, 221, 259; prece- 



dence in the, 242; life of, 257; 
Rough Riders at, 258; pets in 
the, 266 

Whitman, Walt, 90 

"Wilderness Hunter, The", 
quoted, 82 

AVill, his indomitable, 16, 19 

William H, Emperor of Ger- 
many, Roosevelt's meeting 
with, 290-292; facetious note 
on photograph of, 292 

Wilson, President Woodrow, 
Judge Knowlton's opinion of, 
150, 339; election of, 315, 333, 
334, 338, 340, 344, 345, 356, 357 

Windsor Castle, Booker T. Wash- 
ington at, 205 

"Winning of the West, The", 
Roosevelt, 102 

Winthrop Street, Number 16, 
Cambridge, 26 

Wood, Leonard, 141, 142, 143, 
144, 145, 324 

Wordl-iury, John, Class secretary, 
quoted, 58, 173, 272, 273; death 
notice from, 358 

Woodchuck, preparation of 
skeleton of, 5 

Woods, Arthur, 254 

World War, the, 151, 334; 
United States enters, 337; 
Roosevelt's desire to partici- 
pate in, 337-344 

Wrestling, tries Japanese, 268, 
269 

Yellowstone Park, 99 
"Young Egypt", warning from 
the party of, 283 






.0 



t^ 



